FEAR 2 point 5: The Regent Initiative
by Daemon McRae
Summary: As Robin rushes the team to a nearby medical company to carry out a mission requested by Batman himself, they witness a series of horrifying events. They shall face their fears tonight, and for some, even death itself. M Horror Slash. DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

F.E.A.R. 2.5: The Regent Initiative

Author's Note: What's Up, People?! I'm here with another Teen Titans fanfic, this time a crossover, (guess with what?) something to play with between chapters of Breaking the Mold, in an AU (alternate universe) with two new characters. One is my creation, a meta named stray who had undergone genetic experimentation, and one is my editor's (roommate's), named Mimic, his older brother. I'd go into a major back story , but most of what they can do and who they are will be revealed in this story. If you are not new to my works, don't worry, this has nothing to do with Reflex's stories, and this IS the first time I'm using these guys.

It's so easy to throw new characters into the DC universe. Have fun!

Chapter 1: Operation Genesis

"_In the early years of Perseus, many experiments were held, many unsuccessful. Most people were aware of Paxton Feddel's 'success', and none dared question Alma's power...."_

_"... But little knew of one experiment that had been mistakenly labeled as a failure. But maybe it wasn't a mistake that they had locked it away. Locked her away. For their tests and procedures had been successful. More than they wished. It had taken more than everything they had to lock her away, to prevent her from using her power. Abusing it. Killing her in the end seemed the only way to truly ensure the safety of their world, their minds._

_But killing her had only done so much as to aide her in her goals. It allowed her to discover new powers, new potential. They say that death is only the beginning, but it seemed they had answered a question that no one dare ask: the beginning to what?_

_And that answer... was Caroline."_

_-_Journal entry recovered from wreckage of an undisclosed military base. Author unknown.

*--*

The Titans had gone through many team members since their founding, some very strange, some very powerful, all of them unique. To say that Stray and Mimic were the most unique, or the most powerful, or the most memorable, really the most _anything, _would be a lie. Their powers were as individual as anyone's, strong in their own ways, weak in others, but they had adapted to their existence, and made the most of what they could do.

Unfortunately, there seemed to exist a fine line between what they _could_ do, and what they _thought_ they could do. And they crossed it frequently. With much pomp and circumstance. And they enjoyed every minute of it. They weren't bad people, nor did they make it their goal or their life's work to cause problems for their teammates. They simply deemed that most people took the world much to seriously, and needed to lighten up a bit.

Such as when they took the time to mess with Robin. Or, as the "Brothers Mischief", their less than affectionate label, liked to refer to him, Mr. Anal Forest. Called so, "for the large quantity of trees that he needs to remove from his ass," according to Mimic.

"This can't be a good idea," Stray commented yet again from his perch in the rafters.

"You've said this," countered Mimic, currently hard at work rigging some wires and props to Robin's doorway. Given that the doors slide in and out of the wall, the usual bucket-over-the-door trick was rendered useless. So some ingenuity was required. Mostly involving some temporary shelving, trip wires, and magnetic clips.

"I know. That doesn't mean I'm any less right," the catty teen sneered.

"It also doesn't mean that this will be any less fun, gratifying to watch, or justified. So shut up."

"You know that's not going to happen," the younger brother said, hopping down from his perch. He took a moment to appraise his older sibling's handiwork, nodding approvingly.

"That doesn't make it any less of a good idea," Mimic stood up, pleased with his accomplishments, then led Stray in to the room opposite Robin's, where they had taken steps to modify the wall for observation purposes. "You can control every muscle in your body _individually_, in ways I don't want to know about, yet you can't seem to stop running your mouth. What's the point of being some cracked-out cat boy if you can't even control yourself? That's the base thing for cats, self control. Now stop whining."

"Hey, you know as well as I do that there's more than cat in me. Just because they gave me the damn ears and tail, doesn't mean that's how I have to live. And besides, you can copy my abilities whenever you want, so you should be able to exert just as much self-control as you claim me to have when you want to, so why can't you keep us out of trouble?" Stray retorted, readjusting his black cadet hat and red bandanna to lay his ears flat. The last pieces of his costume, they were the finishing touches to his Gakuen, a popular school uniform that consisted of a black coat, pants, and dress shoes, accented with gold colored buttons and lining for the cuffs and collar. His tail looped through his belt loops, a lazy attempt to camouflage his more-than-defining features. His scruffy blonde hair drastically contrasted with the primary colors of his outfit, and the dark hues of his fur.

"Because it's funny that way," Mimic said simply, in that tone that one uses when they assume that that's all they need to say to win an argument. In this case, however, he was correct. Stray took his time to make himself comfortable on a couch in the makeshift living room, a poor attempt at having more than just the common room to sit and talk.

Stray sighed and forfeited the conversation then and there, taking solace in a random book on the coffee table, something about lighthouses of the world, no doubt a text acquired by someone who thought these books were standard fare in every sitting room ever.

Mimic, however, had made camp in a lounge chair set at a conspicuous angle to the wall, just right of the door, where he had made some "adjustments" to the paneling, allowing him to see into the hallway. He twitched every now and then, whenever movement caught his eye, but never wavered in his focus on the door across the hall from him.

They stayed that way for a while.

*--*

Elsewhere, in some random hallway in the tower...

"Starfire, do you care to explain why you've dragged me out of my room in the middle of the day, when there is absolutely nothing going on, and I finally have a moment of peace and quiet to steady myself? I haven't meditated since yesterday morning, and I'm feeling... twitchy.," Raven's signature droning tones echoed through the hallway after a certain alien, as she hovered down the corridor with a look of grave seriousness adorning her usually cheerful face.

"I am concerned that our teammates are up to the "no good" again. I have not seen them for quite some time, and have heard whispers around the tower for many hours now. I do not wish to be caught by one of their 'life lessons' again." She peeked around a corner, then snapped her head back in place with such speed and purpose, that she needed to take a moment to readjust it on her shoulders again.

"Starfire, I seriously doubt that looking for them when you suspect that they're plotting something is going to accomplish anything more than walking right into their trap. I'm going back into my room. Follow me under penalty of unpleasant things being done to you in very uncomfortable ways."

"But, but..."

"Starfire..." Raven all but growled her teammate's name, then disappeared into the floor. It was apparent to Starfire that if anyone were to assist her in eluding the deeds of the Brothers Mischief, she would need someone more devious than they.

*--*

Now, of all the people in the world that the phrase devious could be applied to, one would certainly take pause before mixing it, and any other assortment of words, in any sentence that also contained the words 'Beast Boy', without the words 'is not' between them. However, he had made it his personal goal to claim and keep the title "King of Practical Jokes", and to Starfire, he was a natural choice to consult on the working of a mischievous mind.

"Star, you've come to the right place," Beast Boy greeted her, upon hearing her dilemma. He had been found in his usual spot, losing horribly to Cyborg in yet another video game. (For those of you who wonder why these two would spend so much time in front of a television, or why this scenario is used with such frequency, the next time you meet someone who calls themselves a gamer, or find yourself in a social situation with a 'video game enthusiast', ask them how much time they spend in front of the screen. Then get back to me.) "Step into my office, will you?" he asked, imitating the air of a businessman. Starfire looked puzzled for a moment before Cyborg added, "Just sit down, Star."

Beast Boy stood up, and pulled out his favorite white board of conspiracies, clearing away some scribblings connecting a reported teleporter from the Midwest to a cult of chocolate cracker-worshiping clone people, to make room for notes. "Ok, what do we know? They usually pace themselves with the jokes, taking turns on who's in charge of their latest project. They almost never target anyone constantly, changing their focus after almost every move. SO, let's narrow down the list of teammates they've hit recently..." Beast Boy trailed off on his theories and reasoning, as Starfire payed rapt attention, and Cyborg chipped in to make corrections, suggestions, and random jokes.

*--*

It had been hours. Nothing had happened, not even a twitch, after awhile. Every now and then, Mimic would jump, thinking he'd seen something, then sigh as he realized it was just a shadow or something insignificant. No one had been down this hallway save them since morning.

And Stray was bored. He'd learned more about lighthouses than he knew he could in a day, had rearranged furniture, fallen asleep twice, and even taken watch for an hour. There was nothing to do, but Mimic wouldn't let him leave "in case someone walks down the hallway when you do, and starts bugging you."

He had taken to listening to the radio with headphones on, watching his older brother with offhand curiosity. He thought about making some suggestions to the copycat's wardrobe, Mimic's standard blue long coat and jumpsuit being much to drab for the occasionally flamboyant feline, who had shed his coat, hat and bandana to cool off in the stuffy room. He couldn't turn the heat on, because Mimic didn't want any sound coming from the room. A concept that also led to Stray not being able to talk, move around much at all (the furniture thing had not gone over well), or tun the radio up to comfortably deafening volumes.

This did not sit well with him. "Mimic, I'm leaving. No one is coming down this hallway tonight. Not until everyone goes to bed. Robin's probably studying in his Slade room again. And I'm hungry." He took a few steps towards the door, and Mimic motioned for him to sit back down.

"Just wait a little more. I'm sure he's coming," he whispered, not moving from his post on the wall.

"That's what you've said every hour we've been in here. He's not coming. And I'm going."

"Just sit down. We've had this argument, like you said, every hour since we've been in here. And it always leads to you sitting down and finding something else to do. Now go do that."

"Screw this," Stray snapped, and moved to open the door.

Mimic whipped his head around, and opened his mouth to back at his younger brother, when they heard a crash from the hallway, followed by a yell, then another crash, then, a very familiar voice screaming, "MIMIC! STRAY!"

Stray paused. Then turned to look at Mimic, who, having turned his head to glare at his younger brother, had not been able to see his awesome plan in action. He did not look happy. "Well? You wanted to leave. It's all clear now," he motioned for Stray to open the door, his voice thick with sarcasm. Stray's tail flicked back and forth in aggravation, his ears twitching aggressively. "You're a douchebag," he growled at his sibling. He pressed the panel on the wall to open the door, and stared down at a very angry, very greasy, Robin.

"You know, Robin, there is such a thing as _too much_hair product. Although, if you're going for the body oil thing, I don't think Starfire would mind."

Robin made to stand up and take a swing at the offending feline, but slipped once again in the grease that moments before had occupied the bucket that once stood upon the hinged half-shelf above his door, which had made it's way onto Robin's head, soaking him thoroughly, and slicking the floor beneath him. He landed face-first, as Stray elegantly leapt across the affected floor, his supernatural advantages allowing for some quite acrobatic maneuvers, allowing him to bypass the grease entirely. He then proceeded to waltz his way to the common room, for some well-earned (at least he thought so) dinner. "Mimic's still in the sitting room, you can yell at him if you want," Stray shouted over his shoulder as he turned a corner.

Robin was much less than amused.

*--*

Mimic had made his way to the common room nearly an hour later, having received a lengthy lecture on the unsafe practices of practical jokes from their fearless leader, while he made a running commentary on how his jokes were meant for people to lighten up, which was obviously what Robin was NOT doing. He also took the time to point out that his jokes could be greatly useful in training the other team members, and Robin himself, in the arts of disabling traps, reflex and endurance training, and environmental threats. It did not go over well.

Starfire had long abandoned the idea of avoiding any traps, and had set about caring for Silkie, tending to her in that more than creep motherly tone that most teenage girls get when they are given something to care for; Raven and Stray holding light conversation about some band or another, the feline obviously taking more interest than the young cambion.

Beast Boy and Cyborg argued over dinner, while Robin had taken to his room to clean up the mess that, according to Mimic, he had created, because he was the one that caused the bucket of grease to spill. The Boy wonder had simply had no desire to argue With everyone doing there own thing, there wasn't much left for Mimic to do.

Until the alarm sounded. "Yay! Beatsticks!" Mimic yelled to no one in particular, pumping his arms into the air in victory. He received a variety of looks for his efforts, as Robin burst into the room, yelling, "Titans, go!"

As if they didn't already know that.

*--*

Most of the time, when the Titans were called out to fight an enemy, they expected to be received by some grandiose villain who would present himself or herself with great flair, presenting some sort of specially designed challenge, or a clever trap tailored to their theme, or just outright attacking. Very few times were they approached with an enemy or challenger that operated with any level of military proficiency, and those occasions were usually the Hive, or Slade's army of robots.

In very few cases was it ever an actual _military_ force, let alone one that acted with such precision. The Titans were having a hard time with it.

Raven's telekinetic field was being pushed to it's limits, as short, controlled bursts of assault round pummeled against her mental energies. Beast Boy had taken point as a Galapagos turtle, his massive, armored frame providing shielding as they stood him upright as a makeshift bulwark. Starfire and Cyborg took turns providing covering fire for Stray and Robin, who were taking out single men at a time with guerrilla tactics, dodging from point to point with much effort. Mimic had taken to copying Raven's abilities, and providing shielding support for the team, pouring what little emotional energy he could control into hers, allowing her more energy to work with.

Even with this seemingly efficient tactic, they were having great issues against the group of masked soldiers that occupied the medical supply company the teens had been called to. They had shown up expecting a run of the mill villain robbing the facility, and had taken a look around when they were not immediately met with an obvious threat. They had made it through a few floors of empty building, when Stray's heightened senses had detected someone else on their floor. They had made the mistake of not trying to hide their presence, instead attempting to intimidate any potential intruders by bursting into the room, demanding that whatever evil that lay wait make itself known.

It had. With gunfire.

"Who the HELL uses guns on teenagers?!" Cyborg yelled, punctuating his statement with a few sonic cannon blasts over the top of the counter.

"The same people that use combat shotguns and assault rifles to rob a medical supply office," said a voice thick with disgust from over his shoulder. He turned around to discover that Stray had fallen back to their makeshift barricade. "I couldn't press on any further with such heavy fire. When they realized we were taking one or two guys at a time, they consolidated to a circle of fire. They're so well trained it's ridiculous. Robin said he had a strategy though. I don't know what, it's kind of hard to hear him over gunfire. And he mumbles."

Mimic and Raven flinched with the strain of supporting their shield, Raven adding some extra chants to stabilize her concentration. "I can't believe my day. First, I miss my trap, then I get ranted at by the stoplight ninja, then I'm blocking suppression fire _with my mind_. Glorious day for me!"

"Actually, I"M blocking suppression fire with my mind, YOU'RE breaking my concentration, so shut up, or we die!" Raven yelled at him under her breath between bursts of bullets.

"Point." He returned his concentration to feeding her energy, recoiling occasionally from the attacks. He glanced over at Beast Boy, who had taken behind an overturned metal desk, using it as cover while speaking into his communicator. He glanced over at Starfire and Cyborg, who were trading turns firing shots at the main group in the center of the room, and occasionally taking shots at the soldiers trying to creep around the side.

All of a sudden, Beast Boy shouted out, "Titans, duck!"

Nobody questioned him, as all of the teens forewent their previous tactics, and hit the ground. Mimic had just enough time to register a large burst of light and sound across the room, and a few cries of anguish, as what he could only assume was a flash-bang went off in the middle of the room. He counted off a few seconds, remembering Robin's warnings on his weapons, then took a glance over the desk to see if any of the soldiers were coming their way. Most of the men he could see were disoriented, or readjusting to the new turn of events. A couple of men stood themselves up, retraining their weapons, but appeared so simply fall down again. This went on for a few moments, a soldier or two would stand in one location, only to fall again, than another, in a different part of the room. When all was said and done, a large group of well-restrained and disarmed men had made a neat little circle in an otherwise thoroughly trashed room.

Robin took no time in interrogating his captives.

*--*

Stray, however, had no interest in standing around while Robin yelled at the group of hogtied soldiers, and took Mimic, now copying Starfire's abilities, and Beast Boy, on a search party, to try and scout out any other splinter cells or lone soldiers. After about a half hour of scouting, and covering every room, they returned to their search with Cyborg in their group, who began setting warning devices and traps on all the entrances to their current floor, under Robin's suggestion.

Stray had lost interest in the seriousness of their situation, and with this floor "secure", he felt no need to sit mindlessly back while more experienced interrogators processed their new found prisoners. Besides, fast-paced events had never sat well with him, and he decided to take a moment to relax, and ponder a few thoughts. Why would they be called in to suppress a trained military force? Wouldn't the actual _military_ be better off handling the guys with guns? And what would call these guys to raid some medical technology company in the middle of the city with a small man cell with assault rifles and shotguns? What were they expecting to fight? Obviously not the Titans, Stray pondered. Men like that, they would have brought some specialized equipment or weapons to deal with them. And such heavy arms seemed a little too extreme for a bunch of Teens, anyway. He slowly came to the realization in his musings that they were expecting some great threat or security measure at this facility that they might not have come across, yet.

He decided to return to the group to inform them of this fact, and to prevent a search party from coming along and dragging him back on their leader's orders. Taking a less scenic route, he strolled through the now-abandoned hallways of the evacuated building, weaving in and out of the strewn equipment that lay about from a combination of fighting, fleeing, and general carelessness as people moved about amongst the recent happenings. A lack of lighting led him to believe than some of the circuitry in the building may have been damaged by combat on this floor or another, although the bestial DNA within him allowed him to see much better in the dark than normal.

It still didn't prepare him for what he found on his way back.

*--*

Mimic's attention span, as much longer than Stray's as it was, was starting to reach it's end. Robin had had no progress with his interrogation, as none of the soldiers were talking, some of them had passed out from the force of the blast, or were still unconscious from his hit-and-run tactics, and one had even gone so far as to swallow a suicide pill before Robin had even begun questioning. None of the other Titans had made any progress in their mission, except for sealing off this floor the best they could, relieving the soldiers of their arms and some of their armor, and redistributing the equipment amongst the team.

"So, anyone want to explain what the hell is going on here?" Cyborg asked no one in general. There seemed to be a great deal of that going around. "First, it's just a normal day, we're messing around, Titan Alarm goes off like usual, and we run off to save the day. The next minute, we're taking heavy fire from some special ops team, and barely hold our own for like, half an hour. Then, all of a sudden, Robin breaks out this uber flash bang that makes these guys sitting ducks. What's going on, Robin?"

The team leader sighed heavily, then turned to his teammates. "I really don't think now's the time to tell you, but I know you guys won't follow me further into this unless I do-"

Starfire cut him off, holding up a hand. "It is not necessary Robin. We are undamaged, and victorious. If there is more of this battle to be fought, then let us fight it. We will follow you as we always have." She took his hand in hers, smiling at him, practically radiating loyalty. They both felt a sudden weight atop their hands, and noticed Cyborg had added his to the mix.

"Definitely, man. You know we got your back. If there's something deep and mysterious here, well, that's what we do. Now let's do that."

"Yeah, dude," Beast Boy rang his approval, placing his hand on the pile. "We just took out a special ops cell. These guys are so done!"

"Um, Beast Boy-" Robin started, but was interrupted by Mimic throwing his hand on the stack.

"Yeah, yeah. Motivational teamwork kind of thing. I'm no good at speeches, but I didn't sign on to this group to sit back and watch. Just promise you'll tell us what this is about when it's over."

"You guys-" Robin continued, but his teammates continued on, providing what they thought were much needed words of encouragement. It wasn't until Raven coughed behind Beast Boy's back did they notice it was time to stop talking.

"You might want to listen to what he has to say," Raven added not-so-subtly.

"Yeah, about that," Robin started, extricating his hand, and shaking it off. A solemn expression crossed his features, his eyes dimming and his lip forming a thin line. "You need to know what we're getting into before hand, not because I think it's the right thing to do, but because you guys might, well... there's a good chance you might die here tonight."

*--*

Stray had figured that some fighting had taken place elsewhere on this floor before he had come here, but he had no idea the extent of the battle.

The room he stared into was filled with blood. The walls, floors, and ceiling painted in deep crimson like a macabre canvas, a piece of art only the dead or unliving would find anything less than repulsive. Chunks of meat and bone lay strewn across the tables and chars, carelessly laid about as if someone had simply knocked a stack of papers over. The strong smell of copper and flesh seared his sensitive nose, even as it stirred something carnal in him; he had never been good with blood, not since his genetic manipulations, but he had never encountered more than small amounts, and rarely were they not his own. This much blood, that belonged to someone else, it was... conflicting, at least to him.

Stray's genetics could be said to be a great deal more stable than Beast Boy's. He could not change his form, but he had pieces of many animals inside him. The cat gave him heightened reflexes, heightened awareness, sensitivity to sound and vibrations in the air. The wolf gave him a keen sense of smell, also aided his hearing, and gave him more predatory instincts than most humans have. And we hunt each other for sport. The addition of rhinoceros genes had toughened his skin, hardened his bones, reinforced his muscles. And the crow, well. He had not gained flight, nor wings. He had no feathers to adorn his body. But he had learned to scavenge, to survive off of anything. And everything.

His ability to control every muscle in his body as if they were his thoughts had been granted to him from birth; he had been born a metahuman. And his scientifically minded parents had taken it as an excuse to perform experimentation on him. His self-control would make gene therapy easier. A muscle here atrophies, or seizes just work it till it's fine again. His heart stops, make it work. But for all the control he had been granted over his body, thanks to his "additions", as he called them, he had lost control of parts of his mind.

And right now, it wanted food.

*--*

"Um, die?" Beast Boy asked quietly, in a high pitched voice reserved for small dogs and men who've been kicked in the Kentuckys.

Cyborg gave him a look. "Dude, we go into battle every day knowing that death is a possibility. What makes this any different?" He shook his head, then took a seat, motioning for Robin to continue.

The Boy Wonder coughed into his hand, taking a look at his group. Cyborg, he could tell, was putting on a good front. That would help, his friends would need all the moral support they could get, if it meant keeping them alive for a moment longer. Raven and Starfire, however, looked ready to freak out and cry, respectively. It should speak volumes for Raven's level of self control, that she had just seen a man kill himself (she was the one interrogating the soldier who downed the suicide pill), been shot at, ambushed, and nearly passed out from strain, and had been told that would only get worse from here, that she still had some semblance of control.

Nearby, a desk drawer shot it's way across the room. Raven jumped, and whipped around at the noise, her anxiety breaking the glass on the door nearby.

"Raven," Robin said soothingly, taking a step towards her, "It's important that you calm down. You need to stay as stable as possible in this environment. I haven't even told you what our enemy is, and you're jumping at your shadows. Literally. Start chanting. That's an order." He firmed his tone with his words, grabbing Raven's shoulders and bringing her around to focus on him.

Raven's wild eyes locked on to Robin's, and she began mumbling her mantra, slowly at first, unsure, then louder, faster, until she had steadied her voice. She closed her eyes, and forced herself into a sitting position, while Robin turned to the rest of the team. Starfire had calmed down a bit, taking Robin's advice to Raven upon herself, and putting to practice some meditation styles Raven herself had taught her. While the two girls chanted together, timing each others words in sync, which had the noticeable effect of relaxing them both, Robin focused on the guys. "Yes, Beast Boy. There's always a chance that we could fall in battle. Unfortunately, today, or tonight, the odds are vastly out of our favor. It started with a phone call I got from Batman last night.

"He had said that he wanted me to review a case file for him, because there was a great deal of information on it, and he had been asked by an undisclosed branch of the military to review the information himself and provide a field summary, maybe look into the incidents himself. One involved an almost nuclear explosion at a military facility. Which one, they wouldn't tell us. Another involved the disappearance of a great deal of soldiers sent to that area to neutralize the fallout. Apparently both these events were tied in very interesting ways to a sort of psychic soldier program that this particular government branch was working on, although that's as much information on the projects as we've been able to receive.

"We were informed of two individuals who had undergone testing in this project, a young girl named Alma, and a man named Paxton Feddel. Again, details are scarce. What Batman discovered, however, was that they were doing experimentation in more than a few cities, including some research here at Jump. When he dug deeper, he accidentally intercepted a transmission indicating a planned attack on this facility, where they had been developing some of the drugs used in the program. Batman had asked me to get the team to stop him. I knew you wouldn't go if you thought we were being choirboys for the military, so I hit the alarm myself, and dragged you down here to prevent the assault. I assure you, I had no idea they were carrying such heave arms."

Mimic's head had started to swim, Beast Boy has lost himself somewhere in the middle, and Cyborg merely looked grim. "You said they were doing experiments here in Jump, right? What kind?"

"The only thing I found out was the name of another patient in the psychic soldier program. Apparently the concept was to create generals who could direct their soldiers with mere thoughts, allowing them to act as a hive mind without the general even setting foot on the field. It's said that Alma and Paxton were 'successful' in the experiment, but had gone out of control. Alma more so. A lot of people died. This new girl's name is Caroline. I guess they thought little girls made good mind toys. I don't know if the same thing is happening here, but from what I've read on the F.E.A.R. Team reports from both incidents, First Encounter Assault Recon, by the way, is that the attacks usually come in waves. They get bigger, more intense, and much more bizarre. I get the feeling we've just climbed into the barrel, and they have yet to drop us into the river."

"Let's just hope that we don't go over the waterfall," Beast Boy added grimly.

"What was that super-sized flash-bang you used earlier? Why'd it turn those guys into rag dolls, even for a few seconds?" Mimic asked.

"That was a psycho-inhibition concussive neural-isolation canister. P.I.C.N.I.C.s for short. I have quite a few, but it still may not be enough. They're designed to sever any psychic connections between any two sources. It cuts the soldiers off from their commander, along with providing a form of concussion on a psychic level, add in some loud noises and bright lights, hello, meat dolls. It's why Raven's so much closer to freaking out than she should be. Fortunately, not all of her powers are psychically based. But it's enough to send her for a loop for awhile," Robin slumped his shoulders, and glanced over at Raven and Starfire- in time to notice them walking back to the group.

"Not long enough, it seems," Raven added dryly. Her specialty. "Next time you use one of those, signal me. I might be able to stop myself from going looney-tunes and killing you all out of fear."

Beast Boy gulped. "That would be nice."

Starfire looked around at the boys, and sat down in the circle. "I heard much of what was said, Robin. It sounds like you had little choice bringing us here. I... do not approve of your tactics, but little can be done about it now. So let us press on. Hopefully, this new subject will not be so problematic."

Mimic then took a look around. "Speaking of problems, where's Stray?"

*--*

Stray had been eating. Had been, until two things happened: first, he became full. There was quite a lot of meat left in the room, and he had taken his time consuming the lot. So he had continued his trek back to the office they had originally been assaulted in, and passed by another bloody room on the way back. He had considered taking a chunk with him as rations, in case he became hungry again. Then he noticed a big difference in the rooms.

This room still had the blood and bones of the last place, and had even more flesh in it. But is also had something else. Heads. With faces.

The last room hadn't had faces. He hadn't seen humans, just food.

And the realization that he had cannibalized human corpses on instinct came rushing through him in a wave of bile that expelled itself violently from his stomach into a nearby sanitation bucket. He took a little side trip to track down an un-bloodied bathroom, and washed himself clean of the blood (_blood so much blood he had eaten HUMAN)_, and made a beeline straight for his goal.

He walked in just in time to hear the sentence "I have no idea where that stupid cat is, but I know we have to look for him," in what was no doubt Raven's voice.

"It's good to know that I'm so well appreciated," he drawled sarcastically, attempting to a ct as if nothing had happened.

"And where the hell have you be-" Mimic's voice cut out as soon as he looked at Stray, his eyes widening. The rest of the team was soon giving him similar looks, and he quickly became uncomfortable. He spun around to make sure nothing had followed him into the room, then turned back around to face his now-captive audience (_what's wrong with them did something happen while I was-) _and saw his reflection on the way back.

He had washed the blood off of his face, and out of his mouth and hair.

But from the neck down, he was crimson. Covered shoulder-to-toe in human blood.

He expelled his lunch for the second time in twenty minutes.

It took awhile for anyone to say anything, after they had cleaned up the sickened feline, and gotten him into some of the basic clothes one of the now-unconscious soldiers were wearing, a black t-shirt and cargo pants, which he loaded with small arms that the soldiers hadn't pulled out. A pair of handguns, and a generous supply of spare rounds. Doing a floor-by-floor sweep on the way down, and keeping them restrained in a multitude of ways, they left the group of soldiers at the front door, with Robin placing a call to Batman to come "pick up the package".

It wasn't until they had made camp in the lobby did Cyborg finally speak for the whole group. "This may be the longest night of our lives."

A/N: Yay! First chapter of my new story done! It felt a bit rushed, but I really wanted to dive into this one, just like the games. They don't give you a moment to think, unless you go backwards, and I'm trying to keep in the spirit of the game as much as I can without making the Titans soldiers themselves. I hope you look forward to the next chapter! Also, for those of you new to my work, I'm a review monkey.

Ooh, ooh!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: I would like to thank a Half Empty glass for favoriting my story off the bat, letting me know that people are still reading my stories. Yay, you! Now, on to the second chapter of my horribly abusive F.E.A..

Chapter 2: First Encounter

To be told that your job runs the risk of killing you, a lot of people hear that. Armed forces, security guards, dangerous materials handling specialists, and especially superheroes. But being told that your job will kill you _today..._

Well, that's a whole new pile of "fuck this." Your first thoughts are to get up, make for the door, and run screaming into the night. Your second thoughts are how impressed you are with your first thoughts, and that they are very good ideas. But, depending on your position in life, you may not actually have that option. Such as being a teen superhero with the responsibility of saving lives, even at the cost of your own. Of course, that responsibility tends to come into question when you're not sure whose lives you're trying to save.

And Stray took no time in making this point clear, after they had debriefed him on the real reason they were there. "Seriously, you expect me to like, stay here and fight to my untimely death for a bunch of medical equipment used to process a bunch of psychic super-soldier generals while they set a tortured and demented superhuman with the mental age of 9 or so after us with a hive mind of soldiers that respond to her every thought, after the last time this shit went down a nuclear detonation struck in the middle of a populated area, while a trained _military force_ was taken out in a couple of days by forces they know so little about that we don't get a single word about it?! HELLZ to the NO!" He then proceeded to make for the door with full intent on running screaming into the night.

Three things stopped him. One would be the fact that he was too weak to actually do any running, having emptied his stomach twice in a half minute. The second thing was the fact that he didn't _actually_ intend to run, just walk to the door dramatically, make an offhand comment about how much they needed him, and turn around.

The third thing was Raven's telekinesis stringing him up by his ankles in midair. He then proceeded to illiterate points one and two to them. "So you see, I wasn't _really_ going to go anywhere, right?" He grinned sheepishly at a glaring team of heroes who obviously did not approve of his actions. Especially Mimic. He clenched his teeth and held his tongue, though. He knew his little brother well enough to know that he wouldn't _actually_ abandon his friends, when it came down to it.

Robin walked up to the hanging tabby. "You need to learn to take this seriously, Stray. We're all in this, whether we want to be or not. This building's been shut down, so leaving isn't even an option. And if we ARE going to survive this night, everyone needs to be at their best. That involves _no jokes._"

Stray winced as blood rushed to his head. "Fine. But I want it in writing that once we get out of here, I get to prank you people for a week. Uninterrupted."

Raven leered at him. "Stray, enough."

"..."

"... Good Kitty." She sneered.

Stray twitched. "Just let me down. Like, now."

"Sure thing."

Thud.

*--*

Beast Boy was in nowhere near as good a mood as Stray seemed to be. He had been sent off with Starfire, Robin, and Mimic, who was their Raven substitute for now, and still felt very alone. His instincts were reacting to the environment much the way any other animal's would: the heavy scent of blood, the aura of combat and murderous intent, and the very slight weight of something else... something Beast Boy couldn't identify, having never experienced this kind of... pressure, that was how it felt. Something weighing in on him, suppressing his thoughts, almost, making it hard to think and focus. But only by little bits at a time. A gradual process, it seemed.

It didn't help that his teammates were teetering on edge; and to an extremity that usually only Slade was able to push them to. And that was with time, effort, and intimidation. Here, the entire building just seemed, alive, somehow. As if all the old tales of each building being a living artifact, gathering the consciousness of anyone who made their homes there, or worked there, or spent enough time within it's walls to leave an impression of themselves, coming to life and exercising it's will over the owners or inhabitants, rang truer than any scientific fact.

They did their best to hide it, bless them. Robin's stoic and commanding masque made a good motivator to keep going; inspired them, drove them forward. Mimic made his best attempt at keeping aloof, easing some of the tension, which helped them all focus. Starfire's raw determination to see her teammates succeed and be happy made itself known in much-needed words of encouragement. But even so, as they traipsed the halls of the bloody and abandoned facility, stumbling upon gore-ridden rooms that drove Beast Boy's senses wild, and nearly drove Starfire to tears, their sense of dread, foreboding, and an impending veil of dread spread themselves across the Titan's psyches like a cold, rough blanket that threatened to smother rather than comfort.

The Green Teen had wanted to take the form of a creature with no sense of smell, but Robin disallowed it, saying that they would need his nose to sniff out explosives or enemies if they had to. It was their leader's idea that Mimic keep Raven's powers as his active ones, even as untrained as he was, any warning or advanced notice of a threat that he could give them would be all for the better.

"Ok, you guys, this floor is empty, and we've rechecked lower layers. Cyborg, Raven and Stray are scouting the basement, looking for any other ways into the building, so we can't be flanked. It's time we call them back, and move to the next floor," Robin used strong, commanding tones to keep them steady; if he let his voice waver, tried to coddle them, they would get worried, or worse, complacent. They needed to be as on guard as they always were, if not more so. "While I'm updating them, take a few moments to make yourselves familiar with the weapons you have. They're basic combat pistols, relatively straight forward. I assume you remember our arms training?"

"How can we forget?" Mimic answered for them; it had been a trying experience to get used to shooting a gun. Most villains didn't use firearms, and they almost solely relied on their powers. Being taught to wield a cold, emotionless weapon that could kill faster than any of them thought they could was less than concerting. "Believe me. I learned a lot. I don't want to have to take a retest."

BB and Star nodded their agreement, each taking a few seconds to check their guns. Beast Boy's was less than maximum, but he had picked up an extra clip, and, ensuring the safety was on, slid it into his belt. Starfire didn't have the luxury of a costume that could afford rooms for clips, so she had made sure that her weapon held a combat load: a full clip, with a bullet in the chamber. She followed the same safety-and-holster steps, very tedious about carrying it at all.

Even as a warrior race, born to fight and not feel fear or terror, her human experiences had taught her that there was indeed much to be afraid of in this world and others. And one of them was the ingenuity and capacity for human self-destruction. She had never understood how people could be so calm and relaxed about a device that could kill just by point it at someone and squeezing a trigger. The thought of such impersonal combat disgusted her; even more so that she may have to resort to it, just to survive. Her starbolts were powerful, yes. But they lacked the piercing power to affect the armors and heavy padding of these soldiers. They did make it much easier to subdue without killing, if she could get enough well-placed shots off before she herself was injured by a well-trained shot from a hidden enemy.

Paranoia wasn't a word she had yet learned, but was quickly becoming well versed in it's ways.

"So, what do we do if we come across another group of soldiers?" Beast Boy asked. "Do we go straight for our guns, or try and use our powers first?"

Robin sighed, and his soldiers slumped. "Unfortunately, we can't treat these guys as people. From what I've learned from Batman and the files he sent me, and from what we saw from the fist team we encountered, all of the soldiers that we are likely to encounter are simply psychic puppets. They have no sense of self, no control over their actions. They also have no mind, mercy, or soul. They're as good as Sladebots. But much more deadly. Military precision and firearms training, in situations like this, more than likely trumps any martial arts or submission techniques any of us know. "So to answer your question Beast Boy... shoot. Shoot to kill. And stay down. Make yourself as small as you can if you have to. That turtle form was brilliant. Try and utilize that as much as you can. Starfire, I suggest using your strength to create cover from materials that normal people wouldn't be able to move. That's your best advantage. Use your Starbolts if you think you have a chance of taking them down without killing them, if we can get even one to answer any of our questions, we have an advantage. But don't rely on them. Don't expect to get more than one shot at a target before they take cover against you. I dare say Stray may be the best to handle this part of our mission.

"Mimic, remember that hole-in-the-wall psychic barrier thing that Raven taught you?" Robin turned to face his teammate, his expression leaving no doubt that jokes had long since been taboo.

"Yeah.. yeah I do. That sounds like a good idea. I got some practice with it, but it's still shaky. The recoil from the gun makes it hard to focus on the shield. I'm no Raven, remember?" Mimic had long since stowed his gun in his coat, having had more than adequate firearms training before he joined the team. His father was a gun nut, and before he had learned about his powers, Mimic had thought that being able to fire a weapon would be the best skill he could learn to protect those he cared about. Once again, he silently praised his hero complex. The undying need to help people had driven him to learn much about his abilities. Even if it meant he had distanced himself from the people he wanted to protect.

"Of course not, dude," Beast Boy interjected. "She's much better looking than you."

Robin allowed himself a small smile as Mimic and Beast Boy bantered back and forth, grateful for a little break in tension. Taking himself aside, he gave the other team a call.

*--*

The call, however, did not come through. Several feet of concrete and steel surrounded the other team, making reception a pipe dream. At least, for the most part. Cyborg's arm came alive with the sounds of static, and Robin's voice popped in and out for a few seconds before disappearing completely. Cyborg made a few attempts to return the call, but to no avail. "That can't be good," Cyborg mused. He heard a muffled squeak behind him, and turned around to see Stray clearing his throat.

"Wha-" he started off, his voice very high and tense. He cleared it a few more times. "What makes you say that?" his voice was still tense, but at it's normal pitch. "What happened?"

"Robin just tried to call me, and couldn't get through. I assume it's from the heave construction materials we're surrounded by. I tried returning the call, but no dice. Hey Raven, want to try reaching them with your mind?"

She shook her head. "Not a chance. My head's still reeling from the P.I.C.N.I.C. Robin set off, and the energy here is screwing with my powers. Whoever is commanding those soldiers, their psychic presence is much stronger than mine. At least they don't use magic, I still have that. Let me try some kind of communication spell instead."

"That sounds like a good idea," said Stray. His voice had returned to normal, but Raven made note that his tail was twitching violently, and the fur on his ears stood on end.

"Relax, Stray. It's just a technical glitch. Besides, you have a gun, and you can see in the dark as well as Cyborg and I can. You should be fine."

"Against soldiers..." he mumbled under his didn't notice, and Cyborg just cocked an eyebrow at him. Raven started chanting under her breath in a language Stray didn't recognize. Which didn't surprise him, he assumed it was the same language with which she recited her mantra. And no one had ever asked her what that was.

The metal Titan figured now would be as good a time as any to find out what bothered their resident tabby cat. "What do you mean, against soldiers?"

Stray started. "Um... I mean that people die when you kill them. And psycic puppets or not, these guys are still meatsacks, just like us. Well, for the most part, like us," he said, grinning at Cyborg.

"Nice try, Whiskers. What are you _really_ talking about? What's bugging you? If it's something you're worried will attack us, I'd like to know," Cy crossed his arms and stared down at the considerably shorter teen. Stray made a note to find a way to be taller than more than just Beast Boy. Being short was annoying.

"Look, Cyborg. I don't think-"

"OW!" a feminine scream from behind them interrupted their deep, philosophical conversation. Stray whipped around to see Raven sitting on the ground, rubbing her head. He spent no time making his way next to her.

"Are you ok?! What the hell just happened?" Raven looked up to see a more-than-shaken Stray leaning over her, fear ripe in his eyes.

"I have no clue. I was trying to use a script spell to draw a message in the wall next to Robin and them, and something flashed into my mind, and I got a splitting headache. It looked like, some kind of padded room," Raven's usual droll was almost gone, agitation and worry filling her voice with emotion.

"You mean like a freaking loony bin? We're nowhere near a mental hospital! And how the hell does someone use psychic abilities to intercept freaking magic? I may not Be a specialist, but I get the feeling that psychic barriers aren't exactly anti-abracadabra-" the catboy was quickly cut off by a combination of a glower from a very agitated half-demon, and a large smack on the head from the Tin Man. "-ow." He quickly reconsidered his rantings, and instead helped Raven to her feet.

Cyborg tried a more respectable approach. "Do you have any other suggestions, Raven?"

"Aside from muzzling the mischievous midget? No." She pulled her hood over her head again, having shaken it loose in her fall.

Stray righted himself with the slight. "Ooh, alliteration. That should scare off whatever superfreak is wandering this place." He twitched at his own words, realizing what he said, but quickly gave in to the curious looks his teammates were giving him. "Ok, Cyborg, like I was saying, I don't think knowing what I know will help us at all. But here goes." He perched himself on a workbench against the wall in the small shop room they had settled in when Cyborg got his call. The other two simply sat on chairs, dragging them closer to hear him. "Remember how I came back covered in blood?"

Raven shuddered. "Yeah. You never told us what happened. Just vomited, cleaned yourself off, changed clothes, and said something to Robin. Then he started in on how he wanted us to split up before we could ask you anything."

"And I'm grateful that he did. The reason I'd been covered in blood... was because I was kind of eating."

It took a moment for his audience to register his words. "Eating?" Cyborg asked. "What could you possibly have eaten that had that much blood-" he cut himself off as realization struck him.

Raven had figured it out, too. "You ate... people?!" She looked more than disgusted. It hurt Stray to see her glaring at him like that.

"I didn't know they were people! I just saw a lot of blood, and meat... and the smell, like copper and saltwater... something kicked in. Something really sick."

Cyborg shook his head. "If you think we have to worry about you-"

"NO! Not me. I just- look. You know That I'm some genetic meatdoll from the government, my parents experimented on me with DNA splicing, mixing animals into me-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know all that. Get to the part where this is at all acceptable," Raven growled.

"I'm not trying to make any excuses, Raven. But when they spliced my genes, they did some work with my brain. Making sure that I was properly wired for all of the different systems and heightened abilities they put into me. It's one thing me and Beast Boy have in common. We both have animals in us, not just in our DNA, but our minds And we both struggle in different ways. He has the Beast to contend with. A force of primal rage that's an accumulation of all the rage and instinct of the menagerie that's flowing through his genes. I have something else. Robin and Mimic both know about it. Robin just knows it because I felt I had to tell him. I figured, if at least one person on the team knew, I'd have some kind of safety net to secure myself to if I had problems. Mimic knows because he's my brother, and I refuse to hide anything from him," Stray's eyes wandered the room as he talked, not wanting to look his friends in the face while he explained his shortcomings.

"So what is 'it?'" Cyborg asked. He sounded more concerned than upset, now. Stray hazarded a glance at him, and saw worry across his face. So he looked the Titan in the eyes as he talked.

"I call it, for lack of a better term, The Ravenous. It's this overwhelming desire to feed on anything I find, but it's rare. It doesn't kick in every time I see blood, or meat, or animals. But there are certain triggers..."

"Like a room full of raw meat," Raven finished for him. She sounded almost quizzical, and when Stray met her eyes, he saw that she was regarding him strangely. Almost studying him.

"You guys seem much less freaked out by this then I thought you would be," the tabby quirked an eyebrow at his partners.

Cyborg shrugged. "We figured you were going to tell us you had some kind of sick fetish or something. But if it's a setback to your powers, it's not like we all don't have those. Just look at Raven here," he grinned, pointing a finger at the enchantress. Raven was less than amused.

"Anyway... It's still a problem. The reason I blew chunks earlier was that I'd come across another room after the first. The first room was mostly just blood and giblets. Chunks of flesh, but no discernible features. Had I been in control of myself, I'd be willing to bet that the only thing that would tell me what kind of animal died in there was the fact that I think I saw a lab coat or two, but it's still mostly a bloody blur. The second room had much less gore, but it had actual bodies. I guess seeing the corpses clicked something on, and I realized I'd cannibalized a doctor or two."

Raven looked a very pale green. "I... really didn't need to hear that. Not at all. But what's the big driving force behind your Ravenous? How does it trigger?"

Stray scratched his head for a moment. "Large amounts of blood will do it. Sometimes it kicks in while I'm fighting, but my survival instinct usually overrides it pretty quickly. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, if I'm truly terrified enough, mind you, it's my equivalent of being driven crazy by fear, but if it's bad enough, I can relapse. And that kind of Ravenous is very fucking difficult to come back from."

Cyborg kind of almost-laughed. "So if you find, like, a large tub of blood, with no bodies?" He joked. Stray didn't look amused.

"I hope that never happens, man. I'm really weird when it comes to that. It's not just gratuitous hunger and feeding. I do some pretty strange stuff after I've been in it for awhile. Especially if I've eaten till I'm full. A tub of blood? I'm just as likely to bathe."

It was Cyborg's turn to shudder. "Whoa. That's... yeah. More than enough information. But anyway, now that we know that, let's get back to my original question: What's bugging you so much?"

"Well, there was something else wrong with those rooms. For all the blood, gore, and carnage in them, I did notice something after I'd lost my lunch, and gone back after cleaning myself up. There were no bullet wounds on the bodies. No bullet holes in the walls. No blast marks. No cuts, scrapes, or scratches. If you asked me what killed those people, I couldn't tell you. Yeah, a lot of the dead people we've found have been blown up, shot, or stabbed, but not these rooms. And with all that blood, it's like something blew one of them up. From the inside. There was almost nothing left. Like when you hit someone with a shotgun in a first person shooter, it's just a bloody mist in there. Well, even less so, after I kinda cleaned up some of it," he grinned, baring a fang. They weren't amused.

Raven paused. "So, we're up against more than just some freaky psychic soldiers? Do you think this Caroline girl has any powers outside of whatever weird barrier her powers, or whatever is doing this, put up? Aside from the mindless kill puppets, of course," she added coarsely.

"I feel like I should be asking you that. I don't know, nor am I arrogant enough to hazard a guess. I'm not assuming anything, and I suggest you do the same. Now c'mon," he jumped off his perch, and motioned for them to follow.

"Where are we going, oh Devourous one?" Cyborg quipped.

"To meet Robin, Toaster Boy. That message was most likely a 'get your ass back here'. And the fact that he hasn't heard from us for like, twenty minutes now, he's probably freaking out."

They didn't go very far.

*--*

Robin had actually been waiting for them on the first floor, in the lobby, so they hadn't needed to. Once he'd gotten them all together, he'd gone about setting up some lines of communication between the lobby consoles and the outside world, mainly the Tower, to record information, and Batman, to monitor the scenario, and arrive if needed. He also spent some time tweaking the T-Coms, to enhance reception, and made a few adjustments to their weapons to make them easier to wield. They had also received a supply drop in the lobby, tools they had sent for when Batman had come to pick up the soldiers and interrogate them.

"Ok, Team. Batman's been able to get us some tools, and information to lead us in the right direction. We don't want to go into this blindly, floor by floor. Let's see what we've got..." He pulled out some packages for each teammate: a repair kit for Cyborg, in case of damage mid-fight. Some spare tools for Robin, including extra weapons. Raven had sent off for some texts full of spellwork and materials that didn't require a psychic connection to use. Starfire had asked for food. Mimic, some hand-to-hand weapons, including a couple of daggers, a shortsword, and some punching spikes. When his teammates gave him various looks for his armaments, he said simply, "I hate guns. And I can feign stealth."

Stray's package received just as many weird looks. He'd sent off for a large steel case that was hidden under his bed, which held some interesting weapons: a set of gauntlets that had hinged blades that extended into claws, which snapped to his fingers, and a pair of greaves with a matching blade pattern. Mimic just grinned at him. "Ok, you hate, HATE being called a cat, and now you have PAWS?"

Stray grimaced. "I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

"Not till the day you die," his older brother smirked.

Stray just shrugged it off, pulled a small black box out of his case and walked over to Robin with it. His talons clicked on the floor for a few steps, at which point he made some adjustments to lock them in place above the ground, to ensure he had some chance of sneaking around. Robin opened it, nodded, and pulled out a small black trigger device, clipping it to his utility belt. He then proceeded to pull out a small metal chain, and fasten it to Stray's neck.

When he had rejoined the rest of the group, amidst arming themselves, Mimic opened his mouth to make a joke, and Stray silenced him with a glare. "Don't start, Mimic. Just don't."

His older brother couldn't stop grinning. "But you-"

"I had a fucking relapse, that's what happened."

Mimic stopped smiling. "...You mean, that blood was-"

"Messy eating."

Beast Boy and Starfire exchanged panicked looks, but Robin put a hand on both their shoulders. "It's ok. Trust him. Stray, I assume you told Cyborg and Raven?" he leveled his gaze at the newly armed tabby cat. _Maybe wildcat would fit better at this point_, Robin pondered.

"Yeah. We had a nice long talk about my problems. I feel all better now," he growled. The looks his teammates were giving him put him in a relatively sour mood.

"Everything?" Their leader cocked an eyebrow.

"What they need to know, Robin." Stray saw Robin's cocked eyebrow, and raised him a menacing glare.

"Just remember to be honest with your team, Stray." Robin added tensely.

"Whatever you say, X." Stray said offhandedly. Robin scowled, but shook it off. Stray noticed, and sighed. "Sorry. That was too far. But you should know that there are places in people's minds that no one should ever go." He perused the selection of firearms they had, until he came across one that he could wield easily with his claws, an assault rifle with an unguarded trigger, which it made up for in multiple safeties.

"Right," Robin kept himself tense, more to stay on edge for the coming threat than anything else. "Ok, you guys, I've set the T-Coms to open frequencies, so don't forget to change them back to frequency D-01 if you're asking for anything like location, status, or strategy. But keep them on open frequency as much as you can, we should be able to use those to tack the communications of the soldiers. But they may be using the same tactic, So be careful. And keep spare ammo with you. Don't be afraid to take the ammo of anyone that... falls in battle. Or their armor, if you think you can move in it."

Beast Boy had just finished clipping together some handguns, having foregone a combat shotgun at a glare from Raven, who was of the sound impression that someone with no training in a certain type of gun should not use that gun. "So, Robin. What did you mean by 'Stray was the best to handle this part of our mission?"

Immediately, he knew he had said something wrong. Stray whipped around So quickly that the assault rifle he had been tinkering with had dropped back into the crate behind him, and one glance at Robin told BB that that had been a slip.

"What. Did. You. Say?" Stray spoke slowly and intently. "What part of 'what they need to know' did not sink in the _first_ time I said it?"

Robin just matched Stray's glare with his own "It was a mistake to say, ok? I didn't think you still had issues with that."

"Oh, like you've dealt with all your problems already, Little Orphan Annie?"

Robin opened his mouth to retort, but Raven cut him off. Quite bluntly.

"SILENCE!" She bellowed, her eyes wide and her face red anger. Some of the chairs quaked violently, but she rubbed her temples, and they settled back into place. She pointed a finger at the elevator doors that lined the wall on one side of the room. One of the floor displays had lit up. And the number was counting down. Seven...

"Titans, ready!" Robin shouted, his focus now entirely on the potential threat. The team members had sprung into action, taking cover behind various desks and overturned tables. Starfire upended a vending machine, and had stationed herself behind that. Cyborg pointed out that an elevator on the opposite wall was also counting down, at the same pace, and on the same floors.

Six...

Stray posted himself on a light fixture above the door on the left, while beast boy followed suit and perched in his Beast form on a support frame above the right.

Five...

Cyborg took Starfire's vending machine's twin and posted it opposite hers, facing the left while she faced right.

Four...

Mimic held his weapons at the ready and Robin trained guns behind his desk at opposing doors.

Three...

Raven screamed. She fell to the ground, her head in her hands. Both Stray and Beast Boy made to leave their posts, but Robin yelled at them to stay put.

Two...

Raven's screams continued, both Stray and Beast Boy, as well as the rest of the team, dong their best to keep focus, and do what they could to protect her, if they had to.

Ground floor.

Raven stopped screaming. She lay unconscious for a moment, then opened her eyes, moving slowly between Robin and Mimic.

The doors opened...

There is one thing that all of the universe has been trying to tell us since we were intelligent enough to listen. Since we crafted our first clothes, made our first weapons, and made the first fire. It has been screaming from a distance and whispering in our ears this simple message since times of old, when kings and queens ruled lands of peasants and poverty, when men of cruel hearts sat atop mounds of gold and true heroes died a hero's death. Since the first gear, the light bulb, cell phones, internet mp3 players, and will continue to try to pound it's meaning into our heads until the Apocalypse itself rains down upon our heads and delivers the final words of this message into our very souls: We can never be truly prepared for anything.

As such, this thought struck each and every Titan in various ways, with very different reactions, as the elevator doors on the left opened wide.

And in the middle of the elevator room, there sat a bunny. Not a live animal, just a little stuffed white bunny with floppy ears, one button eye, the other simply remnants in string, two arms, and two feet, and a little white poofy tail. It was sitting upright, smiling at nothing. A joyous, child's smile that shone innocence and purity. It's fur was bright white, it had a little black button nose, and was otherwise ridiculously adorable and cute.

Aside from the fact that it sat atop a blood soaked carpet, the walls and ceiling of the elevator coated in crimson, with dried patches of blood lending touches of black to the décor.

The Titans knew not what to do with this sight, nor could they begin to if they did. The world seemed to slow as the doors had opened, and once they had clicked into place, the teens found that they simply could not move. It was not as though they were being restrained, nor paralyzed, nor something as simple as their bodies not responding to their thoughts. They wanted to move, greatly so. They just couldn't. Plain as day.

Then the door on the right opened. And inside, a much less morbid, if not much more curious, sight appeared. There stood a small girl, no older than seven or eight, in a simple white Sunday dress, with flowing blonde hair, white Mary Sue's on her feet, and simple white gloves on her hands. She looked as much the part of purity and innocence as the bunny. Except her elevator held no blood and gore, no carnage. Instead, it was as if she was standing amidst nothing. Blackness surrounded her, played at the edges of her small frame. She lifted her head curiously, the rest of her body remaining perfectly still, and she stared in turn at the various Titans around the room. Her gaze settled on Raven, whose eyes were wide with terror as she stared immobile at the child.

The girl then took a few steps towards the young sorceress, slowly, steadily, as if she was walking through a park. She stopped mere inches from Raven's face, and giggled.

"Raven...." she said playfully. Her voice rung like small bells. Raven's face was stricken with panic. She could feel for all the world that something was very wrong with the young girl.

The child leaned in until her lips were practically brushing Raven's, her eyes mere millimeters away, and with a whisper that deafened the room, she shouted quietly, "_Save me._"

The apparition burst into a cloud of red mist, as if someone had shot her point plank with heavy artillery. Raven noticed out of the corner of her eye a flood of red, as the bunny doll exploded into a veritable monsoon of blood, sweeping her away and flooding the room.

It took her a few moments to correct herself in the pool of blood she had been submerged in, and she forced her eyes open, straining her powers, what little she could use of them given her state of mind, to keep the blood out of her eyes. Seeing a hole in the ground which the blood seemed to lead through, she swam as fast as she could, her lungs burning for air.

She thought she would surely drown as she swam deeper, looking for a way out, when she reached the hole in the floor...

...and fell through the air onto the floor.

She gained just enough of her bearings to tell that she was in a padded cell, and then darkness overtook her.

Author's Note: Yes, yes, my reader(s). I will be torturing our poor Raven greatly amidst this adventure. She seemed the best target for the horrors of the Regent Initiative. You thought I was gonna make one of my OC's the hero/victim, right? Muahahaha!

Also, the blood pools in F.E.A.R.? My favorite parts. The hospital hallucinations scared me shitless. I loved it.

Look forward to more mayhem! Now that I have my hooks in this project, it'll just keep going! It may result in a hiatus in Breaking the Mold, but hey, I'm just one man.

One man looking for reviews. I love you guys!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: God, I hate not having a steady computer to work with anymore. It sucks. But, I do what I can, because you guys love me. (Evil cackle.) So, updates will be sporadic, but long chapters will hopefully make up for that. It takes time to perfect a story, my friends.

Chapter 3

To say that the last place Raven expected to wake up was on a cafeteria table would be an understatement. And a gross misjudgment of character. With the last thing to fill her vision being a padded room, a place she had always feared she would find herself in, to wake up to the smell of cheap table cleaners and bad office food was a relief. Having a Hostess Cupcake balanced on her nose? Well, that was just par for the course.

She sat up slowly, her pack popping as her spine remembered how to bend, and she groaned. "What the hell kind of bunny explodes in blood?" She asked no one in particular.

"Ask C. S. Lewis," Mimic grumbled. Raven looked around from her sitting position, and saw most of her teammates sitting around her, munching on vending machine food and otherwise being gloomy. All except for Stray, who lay unconscious on a table parallel hers.

"So, what? Did everyone pass out? Or just us?"

Robin gave her a grave look. "You passed out. Stray... well, Stray was knocked out afterwards." He gave the tabby a once-over, and moved to wake him up. Raven could tell he wasn't telling her everything, but given what she had learned about Stray earlier, she decided against asking. Better to talk to Stray one-on-one.

"So, what do we do now? Did that crazy blond girl give us any leads? Or are we sticking to floor-by-floor detail?" Raven glanced around, not sure who she was asking. She started to worry when her teammates started giving her awkward looks.

"Um, Rae?" Beast Boy asked, helping her down from the table. "What little blond chick? All we saw was the bunny rabbit of bloody doom."

She looked around at her teammates. All of them were giving her the same "Are you sure you didn't imagine it?" look. "You have _got_ to be kidding me? I'm the only one who saw her? Let me guess, none of you got washed away into a sea of blood, and fell into a padded room?" She instantly regretted asking, as the others looked a little frightened now. She decided a cheap cover-all excuse was in order. "She must be sending me these visions, then. That might be why I can't use my powers, at least well."

Most of the concious team looked relieved. They could deal with psychic visions. Hallucinations, nuh-uh, but tell them 'I was having a prophetic dream', and they're cool. Raven marveled at one more convenience of her powers.

At that point, Stray decided to return to conciousness. "Uh... Ok, what happened? Last thing I saw was a creepy blond girl and an exploding blood bomb shaped like an albino Peter Cottontail. Next thing I know, I'm here..." he stopped, wary of the looks his team was giving him, then Raven, then back to him. "and you're looking at me like I just started chanting Raven's mantra in Tamaranian. What the fisk, guys?"

Raven wanted both to strangle him and hug him in the same move. Hug, because she wasn't truly going crazy, not if someone else saw what she did, and strangle, for poking large, gaping holes in her albeit flimsy cover story.

Robin spoke up first, "Ok, Stray, what EXACTLY did you see? Details."

"Well, I was holding point on the elevator on the left, or right, not sure... the one the creepy kid walked out of. By the way, I'm going on record right now in assuming that THAT was Caroline. I heard both elevators ding, but mine didn't open right away. So I turned around, and saw the bloody elevator room with Mr. Bunny in it, then heard the doors behind me open. I didn't see anything at first, it was, like, pitch black in there. But then she stepped out. Walked kinda slowly, too. Like she was sleepwalking. Then she pulls a Sadako Yamamura and flickers right in front of you, Raven. Swear she was going to kiss you or something, then, and I couldn't see her face from where I was standing... couldn't move, either. Like some crappy out of body experience, but I'm still right here, you now? But she must have opened her mouth to say something, but I couldn't hear it, cause my ears starting ringing like church bells, and the bunny exploded. Next thing I know I'm swimming in a room... full... of... blood. Oh god. Oh goddammit, I hate this mission. Don't tell me I--"

"We had to shock you, and drag you out of the elevator. You were licking the walls, man." Cyborg chipped in. "You wouldn't let anyone near you."

"To be truthful, we had to shock you after you assaulted Beast Boy, who had gone to see if Raven was ok," Starfire muttered. "You wouldn't let us near her, either."

Stray glanced around, and finally looked at Raven. She figured her expression wasn't good, because Stray looked almost hurt by it.

The tabby laid back and groaned. "We're so nuking this place when we leave."

"So much for keeping our compusure," Beast Boy muttered. Stray didn't look at him, just batted a hand half-heartedly at him.

"Eh, come here so's I can kill you."

*--*

The Titans had opted to just move on to the next floor, keeping Stray in the back of the group, in case they made their way into a bloody room again. Beast Boy opted to keep up a string of witty banter, namely revolving around renaming Stray, now that he was wearing a collar. Nobody was in the mood to tell him to shut up, mainly due to the fact that walking in silence just served to freak them out.

"So, I was thinking something like Tabby Cat Kid, or Catscratch, or--"

"Beast Boy, make some different jokes, I'm begging you," Stray moaned. He felt in necessary to cut BB off before the kid got to 'Fluffy.' "Or better yet, let's talk about something useful. Like this blond freak Raven and I saw. You never did answer my question, anyway."

Raven gave him a sideways glance. "You never asked one."

"Oh, yeah. Heh. Ok, what did she say to you?"

Raven's shoulders slumped. "Save me."

"Oh, come on. It's an honest question."

"And that was an hones answer, fleabag. She said save me. Really, really loud. Now I get to ask you a question. What the hell is with the guard cat thing?"

Stray's ears twitched. "What guard cat thing? You mean the whole going feral and attacking Beast Boy for getting near you? Hell if I know. Maybe Caroline planted some weird ass hypnotic suggestion in my head. Maybe she wanted you to stay unconcious for awhile, see what you needed to see. Maybe... nah, all out of ideas."

"That's not what I meant, although that's part of it, and you know it," Raven glared at him. The rest of the team had stopped to listen in, if only to get a short rest in, before they found someone or something-- or it found them.

"Ok, you're going to have to spell it out in crayon for me, I'm lost," Stray scratched an ear with one of his metal claws.

"One, you practically demand to go on detail with me and Cyborg when we split up. Two, when my spell failed and I hit the ground, you practically ran the three feet between us. And I've never seen you run that fast. Three, you've been walking directly behind me the entire floor. And yes, four, the attacking Beast Boy thing. If you've got some kind of sad crush on me, then-"

"Whoa, there, little blackbird. Don't make me bake you into a pie. Look, it's nothing so cheesy, I assure you. It's just, right now, you're as good as human. No powers, no combat abilities, and you're barely armed. I just figured, with you being the best connection we have to this place-"

Robin coughed. Stray just glared at him.

"-that it's in our best interest to keep you not dead. I just figured I'd do it."

Raven gave him a once-over. "Are you sure that's it? The last thing I need is for tonight to get awkward, of all things."

Stray scoffed. "C'mon. You guys just found out that I eat people. Doesn't get more awkward than that."

Raven just kept moving.

"Coming from the girl who destroyed the world," Stray muttered. Raven resisted the urge to spin around and kill him standing.

After a few hallways of nothingness, save for the bloody rooms, and random scattered munitions and medical supplies (which they enlisted Beast Boy's kangaroo form to carry), Cyborg decided to break the tension. "So, why ARE you the best equipped to deal with tonight, Stray?"

The feline quaked in his snap-on claws. "Robin, if we live thorugh tonight, remind me to kill you. Dead," he growled.

"Whoa, easy, man," Cyborg waved his hands and backed up a step. "I just thought, y'know, we might want to get things out in the open. I don't want any nasty surprises from my teammates, who knows what this buildings gonna throw at us-" And as he spoke, as if waiting for a cue, the team heard the ceiling above them rattle.

"Titans, on guard!" Robin barked. The sound seemed to carry across the hallway, and they noticed a few ceiling panels fall out, soft clucks made as they hit the carpeted hallway. Stray ran after the sound, not wanting to be near the team right now, and chased the falling tiles down the hall. Hooking a right, then a left, then a few more corners that he lost track of, the sound came to a dead end at the double doors to what appeared to be a procedural room. Stray could see an operating table and trays of medical equipment through the murky glass. A quick flash of movement in the corner of the room caught his eye, but the door was jammed by a few overturned tables. He could also see blood in this room, although nowhere near as much.

"Remind me to kill you back," an aggravated Robin spoke up behind Stray, who turned around to see his team catching up to him.

"Noted," the feline grinned. "Hey, Cyborg, can you blast these doors open? I saw something moving in there."

"You want me to what?! Dude, we just followed you at your highest pace down like five hallways, and you barely caught up with the thing. You want us to _fight it_?!"

"Noooo... _I_ want to fight it. Him. Whatever. I saw claws."

"Oh, and that's SO encouraging," Raven drawled.

"And yet, notice me not being your human shield at the first sign of trouble," Stray snapped, turning back to the door. "Please," he added to Cyborg.

Sighing heavily, and with a nod from Robin, Cyborg leveled his arm at the door. The team took battle stances, Beast Boy pulling out all the (now gooey) supplies being kept in his pouch, and turned cheetah, preparing for a speedy opponent.

At that point, stray noticed the blonde haired girl step up to the window, but too little too late: as he turned to yell for Cyborg to stop, the shot was fired, the beam missing his face by inches. As the door exploded, Stray's world went black.

*--*

Dull light was all that filled Stray's vision at first, as he sat up, leaning a hand against the floor...

Then recoiling it back, a heavy coat of fresh blood painting his hand print, and something else, like a black tar, dripping from his fingertips. Stray quickly surveyed the room, which appeared to be a horrible hybrid of an old Victorian hotel, and the procedural room he had just tried to break into. The room was elongated, a hallway, he surmised, and looked to be coated in rust (_or was that dried blood?_) as well as the floor. Every few feet, large wooden doors were chained shut, except for the ones at the end of the hall, and, turning around, the ones behind him.

Then the smell hit him. It _was_ blood the room was coated in. And it wasn't dry. Fresh as if Stray had killed them himself moments before, the bloody walls deepened in color, the hot liquid slowly pouring into the room.

Stray kept himself sane just long enough realize that this was exactly what Caroline wanted. In that moment, he realized his place here, and how horribly, horribly wrong Robin had been...

*--*

Several hallways away, Mimic heard a frighteningly familiar roar. But as quickly as it had come, it had gone, leaving him in the silenced room with an unconscious Cyborg. Mimic's current power set, Raven's, wasn't doing him any good, as he soon discovered, after a few minutes of testing his abilities, that he was reaching the same barriers she was. And they hit him harder.

"I can't afford to be Stray right now, lord knows what this shithole is doing to him..." he trailed of, trying to block out the unpleasant thought of who that roar most likely came from. "Robin doesn't have powers, and I'm still unpracticed with Beast Boy's. Starfire? No. Her powers are based on emotions as much as Raven's, and I'm not feeling the joy or righteous fury here. Ok, what Hive members have I copied?" Mimic continued to ramble to himself, debating who's powers he should settle into, and whose he new well enough to use effectively here. That was one of the drawbacks to his power: he could store away any number of abilities, just by touching another meta, but could only draw one at a time to the surface. And all he got was the power; not the know-how.

He decided to settle on Kid Flash's abilities. He would have to deal with having much less stamina than Kid, but he could still use the extra boosts here and there. Would help his reflexes, too, if some... thing tried to surprise them. After a couple quick dashes up and down the hall, to make sure he was in good enough shape to make use of the superspeed, he decided to kick Cyborg awake.

Then he noticed the metal Titan already up and running, standing off against the wall, waiting for him. "Ready to go, speedy?"

"Speedy doesn't have powers. And yeah, let's see if we can find a way out. Or back. God, I hate this place," Mimic groaned. Cyborg just nodded his agreement, and readied his sonic cannon. Mimic gave him a look. "Are you sure you want to use that? That's what got us in here in the first place. And lord knows the others are going to remind you of that, later."

Cyborg paused for a moment, then reformed his cannon into his hand, pulling out a combat shotgun clipped to his back. "Stray told me to do it," he grumbled.

"If Stray told you to pants Robin, would you do it? Nevermind," he added, as Cyborg opened his mouth to respond. "I don't need an answer to that, but you get the idea. Look, only two of these sets of double doors," he motioned down the hallway, a room with much less blood than Stray's had had, although they wouldn't know it, with similar padlocked double doors. There was actually some white tile poking through the red stains on the floor. Which wasn't very comforting, since the rest of the floor seemed to be carpet. The tiles just led to a Jekyll and Hide-ish decor. "Are even usable. I don't know what it is, but I cant break these locks. It's like they're molded into the doors or something. Which is just cheap. See if you can blast them open. WITH THE SHOTGUN." Mimic emphasized his words with a hand on the arm Cyborg normally fired with.

Cyborg just mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "You'd have done it, too," before leveling the barrel at a padlock, and opening fire. The shot seemed to spark off of the lock, but there didn't seem to be a scratch. Cyborg yelled in frustration, and blasted a few other locks.

"You know, we don't have infinite ammo-" Mimic started, as the latest lock Cyborg blasted broke apart, and fell to the ground. The chains soon followed. "Huh. American style shooting it is."

Cyborg kicked open the door, and let out a yelp, as a small, humanoid shaped leaped out at him. Mimic saw a gleam of metal...

*--*

Beast Boy awoke to find himself much in the same position as Mimic. His powers proving less than useful, and with an unconcious Starfire on the ground next to him, he was left with little option but to explore the room he was in. Unlike Mimic, however, he had awoken to find himself in the lobby of some corporate building he didn't recognize. He certainly wasn't in Jump City anymore. He shook Starfire's elbow a few times, and she slowly rose to conciousness. "Star? Star, you ok?"

"I... uh... where, where are we? Where is Robin?"

Beast Boy rolled his eyes at her programmed response to ask for her leader/boyfriend/whatever they called it. "Don't know, Star. Haven's seen anyone expect you since I woke up like a minute ago. Any idea where we are?"

Starfire surveyed the well-decorated, if almost completely dark, sitting room they were in, with glass double doors leading to a main hall with a winding staircase. "No, I do not. And I do not like this place. It is most... unwelcoming."

"Well, let's see if we can walk out the front door, and find out at least what city we're in," Beast Boy stood up, and took a few steps for the main entrance. He had just enough time to register the lights on the other side of the glass, before the door was blown inwards, sending Beast Boy flying into a pillar. As his world blacked out, he heard a righteous scream, and the familiar charge of a starbolt..

*--*

Robin was not happy. He had woken up strapped to an operating table, and was currently struggling to break free. Years of keeping tools and weapons hidden in his gloves paid off, as a small switchblade appeared in his hand, and he sawed through the leather straps on his hand. With one arm free, he tore himself out of the rest of his bindings, and leapt off the table. Now free to roam around, he surveyed the room he had woken up in. It looked to be the room Stray had wanted them to blast their way into. Robin made a note to kill him harder, then run him through stress training for a week. Halfway through plotting his revenge against a certain tabby, he noticed something that turned him pale white.

Raven, hung from the ceiling by hooks: one in each shoulder, one through the back of each hand, and one, it appeared, through the back of her neck. Her eyes fluttered, and she groaned lightly. SHe looked like she was in shock from the pain. Forgetting almost all of his training almost instantly, he rushed to the other side of the room ready to pull her down in a second. Reaching out for her, he made to grab her cloak-

And reached nothing but air, as the illusion of Raven dissolved, and reformed to show an unharmed, yet unconcious Raven on the floor. Robin, now refusing to trust damn near anything in this building, kicked lightly at her heels. SHe groaned, and rolled onto her back. Her eyes fluttered open slightly.

And she shot bolt upright with a violent scream, and Robin was thrown sideways into the operating table he had freed himself from earlier. Pain shot up his back as his spine met an egde of metal, and he slumped to the ground, graoing in agony. He looked up to see a very shocked Raven standing ove rhim, and he heard some of the instruments rattle.

"I'm ok. God, I thought you were dying," Robin moaned slightly as he stood himself up again, leaning on his teammate's shoulder for support. Raven walked him over to a chair, and sat down beside him.

"Where are we? The last thing I remember is Cyborg pointing his cannon at that door, then a splitting headache, and then nothing. After that, I wake up with hooks through half my body, and nearly pass out from pain. After that, the nexty thing I'm aware of is blowing you across the room," she motioned to the center of the operating room, where most of the equipment and furniture had been blasted towards the walls, or on top of each other.

"Raven, if I knew, I'd-" Robin was cut short by the sound of a tremendous roar coming from a door that he hadn't noticed earlier. It looked to be old victorian, covered in rust, right where he would expect to see one of the glass double doors of a normal hospital to be. Soon after, he heard murmuring from the other side of the wall, and inched to the door to listen. Raven took up arms with a pistol, and Robin leaned his ear against the door. He couldn't hear much, but one sentence stood out: "With the shotgun." Soon after, Robin heard, and felt, a blast against the door. SOmeone was trying to break in. He leapt back, and pulled out two birdarangs. Slapping them together to make his longsword, he poised himself fr the forced entry. He motioned for Raven to hide behind something, and waited.

The door burst open, and Robin lunged, bringing his sword in a downward arc, just as he saw a glint of metal pointing up at him. He braced himself for the shot, then felt a soft, but sudden _thwack_ as his blade hit a mark, and he heard a gunshot go off next to his ear-

And he saw the edge of his sword embedded in Mimic's shoulder, who was standing facing who Robin was just now realizing was Cyborg, holding the barrel of Cyborg's shotgun to the wall. A split second later, Mimic bellowed in pain, and hit the ground, clutching his shoulder, and growling to himself to keep from screaming. Cyborg and Robin both instantly dropped their weapons, and Raven, realizing the situation, ran to join them.

"You guys... suck... at your... jobs..." Mimic hissed between breaths. He saw a slight glow over his shoulder and hand, and turned his head to see Raven healing him. The pain was subdued slightly, both in his hand that had held the heated gun barrel, and his fileted shoulder. "Thanks," he muttered, then stood up, leaning against a wall.

"I've done what I can, but you're going to need a sling. You can't move that shoulder for a while, Robin-' she glared at him, and he cast his stare at the floor "-cut into your shoulder blade. Your hand should be fine, though. And how the hell did you do that?"

"Let's just say Kid Flash has NOT left the building," ge laughed halfheartedly at hisown joke, while Raven tore the bottom of her robe off, tying the fabric around his shoulder, and resting his arm in it. "I fucking hate this place as much as Stray does."

Robin gave him a look. "Have either of you seen him? Or Beast Boy or Starfire?"

"No, but we heard him. I'm guessing, with you right next door to us, that you heard him t-" Mimic was cut off by a large crashing sound behind him. He whipped around, wincing at the pain of movement, and saw a rather large mechanical suit in what was now a crater in the operating room, followed soon by a large flash of green light, and a tremendous gladatorial cry. Smoke filled the room, and a few moments later, Starfire stepped out, an unconcious Beast Boy over her shoulder. She took a moment to register the group in front of her, and soon glided over, handing BB to Cyborg, who laid him down on the carpet, and kissing Robin, gripping him tightly. Mimic could see tears streaming down her face.

"Friends, Robin, it is good to see you. Have you by chance found a way out of this horrible facility?" Starfire hugged each of them in turn, pausing at Mimic when she noticed his injury. "Mimic, you are injured? Has Raven not done the healing?"

"Yeah, she did, but I have some damage to my shoulder blade," he grinned, and hugged her with his good arm.

"Yeah, thanks to-" Raven started, but Mimic cut her off.

"Thanks to my hero complex on auto-pilot. I got careless."

Starfire beamed at him. "It is good to see you all well. Tell me, where is Stray?"

Mimic frowned at that, and Robin and Cyborg exchanged worried looks. Raven leaned over Beast Boy, working her magics on his back, and said in a low voice, "We're not sure, Starfire, and I don't know if we want fo find-"

"Why, I'm right here, Star!" a cheerful voice echoed down the hall, from the door at the end that hadn't been locked. Raven stood up quickly, and the rest of the team followed her gaze: there stood Stray, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, and a wild grin on his face. Raven noticed, however, that he didn't seem himself--

"Robin, look at his eyes. I don't know if that's Stray or not," Raven whispered to him, loud enough for the rest of the group to hear. Robin met Stray's gaze, and noticed what Raven had; his eyes were silver rings around enlarged black pupils, and the normally whites of his eyes were blood red.

Mimic spoke first. "Oh, that's Stray, all right. But not our friend. That's Ravenous talking."

Stray- now Ravenous- grinned wider, if that was possible, and clapped his hands. "Three points for paying attention, bro! DOn't worry, I'm not here to hurt you guys, I just have a little job to do," he held a hand in front of him, and the metal claws on his fingers clicked... then elongated.

"A little job involving the four and twentieth blackbird. Ready to get baked, Raven?"

A/N: Just one thing to say: THis is so much fun.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors Note: Chapter 4, people. What's up? I'm loving this story so far, and a small thanks to pathfinder for reminding me about some of the villains I'd forgotten about. Now I have more stuff to write!

Chapter 4

The fact that Stray was currently threatening his team left Robin with a good indication of what the environment was capable of, as well as a small scope on the abilities of it's controller. Watch an inorganic metal extend as if it's wielder was growing them himself only served to increase his apprehension at the capabilities of their enemies. Even the fact that Stray was threatening the girl that he had a small crush on (though would never admit to such), Robin attributed to Caroline's influence.

The walls bleeding as Stray passed them, though, was one step too far. "Titans, be ready," he hissed under his breath, the few members without powers taking point in front of the fallen Beast Boy and injured Mimic. Starfire moved forward, a pleading look on her face.

"Please, Stray, we do not wish to hurt you. Surely you are just, 'joking around'?" She asked in a small voice.

Stray paused. For a split second, a smile crossed Starfire's face, as she believed she had gotten through to her teammate with such ease. That smile soon evaporated, though, as Stray's vicious grin grew wider, and he leapt forward, lashing out his claws at the alien girl.

She reacted on instinct, releasing a large star bolt directly in front of her, which met it's mark mid-leap, the resulting explosion from which launched them both backwards. Robin rushed to Star's side as she hit the ground, helping her into a sitting position. No sooner had she opened her eyes again than Stray came tearing through the cloud of dust her attack had caused, baring his claws, and growling furiously. "You BITCH!" the feral boy growled, tearing his claws down upon her.

Robin had just enough time to react to throw her further back down the hallway in the direction they had come, as Stray's weapon tore through the tissue in Robin's arms. He let out a sharp yell, and in one fluid motion, was wielding a Birdirang as a dagger. Stray blinked at the sudden relocation of his prey, which paused him long enough for Robin to slash his weapon across the tabby's cheek.

Stray roared in pain, a deep, primal sound, and lashed out with his other hand, clawing Robin across the chest, and flinging him down the hall, into Starfire's arms. Regaining his stance, Stray lunged forward again, only to be caught full force in the stomach by Cyborg's sonic cannon. He flew several feet backwards, back threw the door he had come from, and Cyborg gave chase. Pausing in the doorway, he leveled his sonic cannon at Stray, now poised on top of a wooden desk halfway down the hall, hissing, and arching his back.

"Don't make me do this man, I don't like fighting my friends," Cyborg's voice rang commandingly down the corridor, and Stray flinched as his sensitive ears caught the echoes of his baritone. Out of anger, and instinct, Stray leapt forward again, twisting in midair to bring his foot across the fleshy part of Cyborg's face. The tin man slammed against the wall, and fell to the ground with a moan, unconscious. Stray turned to evaluate the rest of his opponents, as a large burst of green light, followed by a few small metal spheres, met and detonated inches from his face.

Robin and Starfire ran forward into the dust of the impact, as Raven dragged a now-waking Beast Boy towards the group, Mimic walking the length of the hall. The smoke cleared, however, there was no sign of Stray. Simply a large splash of blood in a neat circle in the middle of the floor that steadily shrank to nothingness, leaving the only clean patch of carpet in the corridor.

Mimic gave Beast Boy a once over. "What happened to you?"

"I don't remember, dude. All I saw was a couple of bright lights on the other side of a door, then BANG! I was out," Beast Boy muttered, regaining his footing. He looked around at his teammates, who all shared mixed expressions of sorrow and anger, including Cyborg, who, Beast Boy noticed, was just getting to his feet. "Ok, what did I miss?"

Mimic gave an empty laugh. Just another of our teammates turning on us. Stray's gone psycho. What were you saying, Robin? That he was the best guy for the job?

Robin rounded on Mimic. "I didn't think he'd be so weak as to turn rogue so early in the game!"

"He's not weak! No weaker than you, at least," Mimic rose to his brother's defense. "He's just… more susceptible to the environment than we first thought. And speaking of first thoughts, wasn't it your brilliant idea to bring him into an open warfare site in the first place?! You were the only one who knew, or ad least had ANY idea, what we'd be getting into here! What made youthink taking someone like Stray into a bloody battlefield would be any kind of a good idea?!"

"I thought he might be able to handle it, if he's so in control of himself! He's never had a problem before, with all the fight's we've been in!" Robin shouted.

"That we use NONLETHAL FORCE AGAINST ENEMIES WHO DON"T MAKE THE WALLS BLEED!" Mimic's voice stressed to a breaking point, and he let go, falling to his knees. "I just, this was such a bad idea, I knew we should have let him leave when he wanted to." Mimic balled his hands into fists, then stood up again, with some difficulty. "I hate this Caroline bitch, whatever she is. I say we go straight for her, and take her out. Kill the beast by removing it's head." His hands shook as he spoke, his anger welled up within him.

Robin laid a sympathetic hand on Mimic's shoulder. "We will, Mimic, we will, but for now, I think we should focus on tracking down Stray, and putting him somewhere safe-" Robin's hand was knocked aside with a swing of Mimic's good arm.

"Somewhere safe? Are you stupid? Nowhere is safe for him here. He's become this Caroline chick's plaything, she's dangling the bloody carrot on the stick in front of his face, and putting thoughts in his head. She should be our first priority," Mimic all but yelled at Robin. It was clear Mimic's points of view on this subject would not be easily swayed. He stomped off down the stretch of hall he had come from, kicking open the other double door that hadn't been unlocked. From what the rest of the group could see, it was yet another hallway, but of a different fashion.

Raven took a few steps after Mimic, then turned and faced the team. "I'm going with him. He's right, we need to be taking out the biggest threat right now, and that's the little girl. Plus, I'm not exactly keen on seeking out my new stalker."

Robin just huffed and walked the other way, down the hallway Stray disappeared to, opening a pair of double doors into a large board room. He noted a severe lack of blood or any signs of life. Sighing heavily, and muttering under his breath, he pressed forward. Starfire soon followed.

Beast Boy and Cyborg looked at each other, , then at the two teams walking away. "Never split up in a horror movie, guys," Beast Boy mumbled. He gave Cyborg a nod of the head, then ran after Robin and Starfire.

Cyborg took his cue, and ran to join up with Mimic and Raven. It was going to be a long night.

*--*

Stray awoke to find himself in the den of what seemed to be a middle-class home, stretched out on the couch, staring at a television showing nothing but static. He stared at it for a few seconds, as he tried to stabilize himself mentally. The last thing he remembered was the distinct smell of rust, and a surge of anger. Yet for some reason, he felt quite content in this room. Taking another look around, the room itself was quite comforting. A medium sized tv, some small tables in the corner with vases and flowers in them, a small woven rug on the floor between his couch and the entertainment center, and, turning around, he noticed a large bay window, out of which he could see a large corn field. He shrugged, assuming he had passed out somewhere, and some good-natured individual had taken him in to rest.

At least, he did, until he turned around again, and saw a small blonde girl in a white dress sitting on the rug and watching the static tv. He couldn't see her face, as her back was turned to him, but he had a good idea of what, or who, she was.

His next few actions, if you asked him, he wouldn't be able to tell you _why_ he did them. Only that he thought it the best thing to do in his given scenario. He knew he should be freaked out. That this place was most likely another illusion, or some kind of trap, but he felt… at peace. And so, he scooted himself off the couch, took a few steps up to the child, and sat down next to her. Staring at the screen, without turning his head, he asked simply, "Caroline?"

*--*

"I can't believe Robin sometimes," Mimic grumbled. He was talking to fill the silence, to have something to do, and Cyborg and Raven both knew it, so they let him be. "What in god's name made him think this mission was a good idea? 'Oh, Batman asked me to do it.' He' probably suck off the Dark Knight for a Scooby Snack."

Raven just glared at him, and Cyborg whispered, "Hey guys, in here." He had pointedly been ignoring Mimic's rantings, keeping an eye out for subtle details, and potential attacks. He led the team into what appeared to be a small office, their latest environment being some corporate headquarters, or a branch thereof. He pointed quietly at a small, red, blinking light on the desk. Shining his shoulder light, he discovered it to be an answering machine, with 2 messages on it. "What do you think?"

"Can't hurt to listen, can it?" Mimic asked. With something to distract him, he decided to keep his ranting to a minimum.

Raven shook her head. "Think about where we are. The environment. Anything could be a trap. I say we leave it alone."

Mimic gave her a look. "We're here to track down Caroline, right? What if it's a clue about the project she was in? Somebody might say something to give us some kind of direction."

The two Titans looked ready to argue toe-to-toe about it, and Cyborg waved his hands in front of them. "Whoa, guys, let's all just calm down and-" BEEP. The sound made the three of them jump away from the desk by a foot, as Cyborg's hand had grazed the play button. At first, all they heard was static.

Then a cool, soft female voice stated: "You have _two_ new messages."

BEEP

"Hey, Rick, it's John. Listen, I got your labs back on the Caroline girl, and I think she's going to be a good subject. She has all the same markers as Alma, but if she doesn't know anything about her abilities, then maybe we could avoid another incident like Armacham Headquarter's Origin Facility Reactor. We want to make sure that she doesn't go over the deep end before we finish the procedures, so we're sending over a large supply of sedatives. Should be there within the week." BEEP The female voice said again: "Message received June sixth, two thousand ten.

Mimic glanced at the other two. "That was over a week ago. Didn't this shit start yester-" BEEP

"Second new message."

BEEP

"RICK! RICK! Don't use the sedative! We tested it on some of our subjects before we sent it over! It didn't do anything other than what it was supposed to at first, that's why I recommended it. But either we got the formula wrong, or someone tampered with it, or something, but all the subjects we used them on woke up again, only a couple of days later. And they were… different, some how. More powerful. Some of them turned into puppet masters, and one or two just starting using psychic abilities, but we couldn't control them, there's still one or two more, I don't know if-" he was cut off by a banging sound somewhere in the background. A sound like an impact on wood. The next time he spoke, it was in whispers. "-I think they found me, but don't use it on Caroline, who knows what might-" BANG. The audio cut off.

BEEP "You have no more messages."

*--*

"Hey Robin, what happened? What's going on? What did Stray do?" Beast Boy peppered their leader with questions, filling the silence much like Mimic had, trying to put together the pieces of what had happened after he was knocked out. Robin simply chose to ignore him, making their way down hallway after hallway of blood and rust and double doors, when suddenly Robin held up a hand for them to stop. "What's going on man? I-"

"Beast Boy, shut up for a minute. Look," he added, pointing at the doors in front of them. As opposed to the Old Victorian double doors that they had seen and gone through, they had come upon a single wooden door at the end of the hallway, with a staple metal doorknob. There was no indicator of a lock on the door. Robin took his ear to the door, and listened for a moment, then waved for Starfire and Beast Boy to move next to him. "I don't hear anything, we should be ok," he whispered. He turned the knob and pulled the door open-

And all three of them heard their T-Coms crackle. "…movement…..door on far end….take point…." Robin glanced at his communicator, and opened his mouth to say something, when they heard a clunk at their feet. They glanced down, and Robin yelled out "Grenade!" before either Beast Boy or Starfire had realized what it was.

Beast Boy's next movements were purely on instinct. He took a running step forward, and, rearing one leg back, gave the explosive a heavy kick back through the door.

They heard a deep male voice scream "What the fu-" before the explosion cut him off completely. Following Beast Boy's initiative, Robin pulled out the two handguns clipped to his belt, and leapt through the door, hiding behind what appeared to be an oil drum on the other side. Starfire flew headlong through the door, and straight up. Beast Boy heard gunfire pepper the walls after her, then stop.

Beast Boy himself took the form of a small rat, and scurried through the door. He glanced up while on the other side, and saw Starfire taking cover behind a metal overhang. He had just enough time to realize they were now outside, before he heard another loud clunk nest to him. He turned his head in time to see a large metal disk with a glowing red light spin what looked to be a barrel in a few dirrections, before settling on a position just above him. Turning his head slightly, he noticed the turret was pointed at Robin.

The turret started to whir.

*--*

Stray just sat in place for a little while. The girl hadn't answered him, so he figured either she couldn't hear him, or-

He figured it better just to stare at the tv. At least for the first few minutes. Then he tried again. "Caroline?"

He heard a small whimper next to him. Turning his head only, he looked down at the young girl, who was curled into a ball, squeezing a small white rabbit. The same rabbit, he noticed, that had been in the elevator and exploded into a sea of blood. The girl seemed to be crying into her stuffed animal, her eyes scrunched closed. _This is who we're supposed to be taking down? A scared little girl?_ Stray thought to himself. It didn't sit right with him. He turned the rest of him, and draped an arm over her shoulders. "Caroline? Is that you?"

The blonde girl turned her head up at him, and stared at him with startling blue eyes. They were deep and sorrowful, as only a child's could be, and it hurt to stare into them. He couldn't help himself, pulling her into a big hug, he started to cry along with her, his tears dripping over her shoulder. He didn't know if it was his own emotions, or the environment itself, but he wanted nothing more than to comfort her, and protect her. _I can't let the others get to this girl, she's all alone and afraid here. She probably doesn't know what she'd doing, anyway. Hell, we don't even know if she's doing it. _Stray's thoughts raced through his head, as he held Caroline close, and silently, he made himself a vow that nothing would happen to her.

Beneath his arms, the young girl's eyes turned from a stark blue to a devilish red, yet her expression didn't change. Still crying, more openly now that someone was holding her, and trying to comfort her, her tears soon turned from a crystal clear to small streams of blood.

The static in the TV above them turned from a snowy white and black to a red haze, as blood seeped from beneath the system, followed soon by blood out of the vents, the rug, between the floorboards and even the walls themselves.

Stray opened his eyes as he felt the warm liquid seep into his cargos, and saw the bloody scene before him. At first, he showed no reaction, but his normally blue eyes turned into the dark red and black pattern they had taken on earlier. Slowly, his expression turned from a deep sadness, to a comforting smile, as he patted the young girls back. "It's ok Caroline. I won't leave you alone with these bad people. You've got a new big brother now, and ol' Stray's not going to let anything happen to you. I promise," he pulled away from her, keeping his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him again, her eyes returning to their normal crystal blue, her tears clear as they dripped down her face. She gave a deep sniff, and asked in a small, sweet voice, "Really?"

"Of course. You've been here all by yourself, haven't you?" His voice was slightly higher, with a small rasp to it, but it could still be said to be his voice. "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Come on, let's try to find a way out. Then I can take you somewhere safe."

She paused for a bit, then nodded. Standing up, she looked down at him, he still on his knees. She only stood over him by a few inches. "You'll take care of me, no matter what happens? Mommy and Daddy left. You aren't going to leave too, are you?"

He stood up, still smiling warmly, and held out a clawed hand. She reached for his, hesitated a second, then placed her small hand in his large "paw". "Of course not. I'm here now, and I'll make sure no one makes you cry ever again. Now come with me, and we'll go find my friends. I'll get them to leave you alone."

Caroline looked almost hesitant for a few seconds, then smiled warmly at him. "Ok, big brother."

*--*

Mimic and Cyborg traded worried glances with each other, and Raven just stared at the machine. "That can't be good. Whatever they gave this Caroline chick, it must have amped whatever abilities she had, even if she didn't know she had the," Cyborg estimated. He gave the rest of the room a once over, and found some medical supplies. Storing them in a small compartment in his arm, he asked, "What do you think, guys? Should we try to find more about this drug? Like a way to neutralize it, make her weaker?"

"That wouldn't work, Cyborg," said Raven. "Even if she didn't know about her abilities before the drug, we don't necessarily know if they amplified powers, gave them to people who didn't have them… or if they awoke abilities the person already had. Neutralizing the drug, if she's already awake, may prove to do nothing at all. It might have already cleared her system by now. And who knows what tampering with her mind now would achieve? It's best if we just try to find a way to eliminate her as a threat entirely."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mimic started, waving his hands in front of him. "You can't be serious. Eliminate? You don't mean kill her, do you? She's just a little girl."

Raven glared daggers at him. "We don't know that, not anymore. Whatever they did to her, she may not be just a sweet and innocent child anymore. Hell, with some of the things Robin told us, a girl like that may be begging for death by now. All of these random phenomena may be her cry for help."

Mimic scowled at her. "Or she could be just plain terrified of the military personnel and troop of met humans traipsing up and down this place. Hell, we don't even know if it _is_ only her doing all this crap. You heard the guy on the tape, that compound did a lot of different shit to a lot of different people. We may be dealing with multiple threats here."

"Weren't you just a few minutes ago shouting at Robin that we needed to hunt her down?" Cyborg cut in.

"_That was to keep him from going after my brother like a common criminal!_ And if you didn't notice, it didn't work. SO I'm a little freaked out here, and the thought of killing a small child, let alone a _girl_, is not one that sits well with me!" Mimic shouted at Cyborg. His glare flickered back and forth from one to the other, then he sighed, his shoulders slumping and his gaze hitting the floor. "Look, I just. We don't need to be rushing into this on half-cocked assumptions. I just want to get out of this hell hole, with _everyone_ that came in with me. I thought that maybe if I'd split off of Robin, instead of following his commando lead and ripping everything a new one, I could get some answers, maybe find a way to save everyone at once. I… I don't think I'm ready to kill anyone. And I didn't want to be the kind of person whose hesitation got his teammates killed. Look, you should go back. Team up with Robin and them. I don't want to be a problem for you, too." He sat down in the swivel chair behind the desk, solemn and quiet.

Raven considered him for a moment, then dropped her glare. Cyborg followed suit. "Look, Mimic, we don't want to kill anyone here, either. But we need to be ready for the fact that that may be our only option. Look, I came with you because I thought cutting the problem off at the source would be the best approach. I want to save as many people as I can, too. So let me help. We need to work together on this. This place has already split us up twice in a few hours. Let's try to stay together a little better than that."

Cyborg just shrugged, and gave him a goofy smile. "Yeah, man. We all know you couldn't do this by yourself. And I'm not really big on the whole killing people either. A hero doesn't kill."

Mimic just looked up at both of them, and gave them a weak grin. "You guys are such softies."

*--*

On the other side of the halls, Robin and his cell were having a much less heartwarming experience. Robin had noticed just as fast the turret that had landed next to Beast Boy, and BB sitting next to it. "Beast Boy, armor! He shouted, depinning a grenade, and throwing it at the turret. Where the rat once stood, a Galapagos turtle now sat, which Robin levered upright, as a bulwark for the blast. Even with the extra protection, the explosion sent them both flying.

Right into enemy range. Robin sprung to his feet, leaping onto a balcony, and kicked the rifle out of the hands of a sniper that had poised himself above them. A few well-placed blows knocked him to the ground, as he rounded the rifle on two more men coming up the stairs, He shot a few rounds at their feet, giving them pause, and hurled the rifle at their heads. One ducked, while the other was knocked over the railing, falling unconscious to the concrete below. The first man stood back up, and turned from facing his fallen comrade in time to see a bo staff crack him in the face. He, too, hit the ground unconscious.

From behind him, Robin heard another explosion. Fearing the worst, he whirled around-

And ducked, as a grenade came whirring past the top of his head. Peeking over the railing, he saw a large barrel that had been blown in half, a few soldiers scattered around it, unmoving. Green smoke pouring from the barrel led Robin to believe that Starfire must have shot something highly flammable. He was about to glance up, as shotgun fire ricocheted off the side of the metal railing of the stairs. He ducked down, and glanced at where he thought the shot was coming from, in time to see something large and green drop onto the soldier holding the shotgun. Robin blinked, and saw a large black-and green panda bear crawling away from the impact, which in turn changed into Beast Boy, rubbing his backside.

Before he could ask his teammate if he was ok, Robin heard more static over his com, and in a much clearer voice this time: "We can't hold them off! I've lost most of my men! Don't let them get to the loading dock! They can get into the entire facility from there!" Robin glanced around the edge of the railing, and saw a small group of men, one of which had his hand on his radio, running up to a pair of garage doors he hadn't noticed before. He looked around for his team, and saw Starfire hovering behind a steel shipping container. He tore off a small button on his collar, and threw it at her, hitting her square in the back of the head. She whirled around, ready to blast whatever had attacked her, and Robin waved her down. She gave him a curious look, and he pointed at the doors. Edging around the crate, she, too, saw the men, and signaled to Beast Boy, who had been hiding under the stairs. Robin saw him stalk out from under him in a wolf form, and Robin leapt down to meet them.

Soon, crackling came over the T-Com again. "They're behind the crates, flank 'em!" Robin heard the voice, both over the com and a few feet away, as he turned, he saw another soldier leaned against a railing. Robin didn't hesitate, simply chucked an explosive sphere at him, which went off in his face. The explosion hurled him against a wall, and he fell, silent. Robin didn't know if he was dead or not, but didn't, at this point, care. He peeked back around the crate, and saw a few men crawling around the edge. One of them noticed him, and they each took aim at him, but were soon interrupted by a flash of green at their feet. A star bolt blast going off right underneath them sent them flying into the wall of another container, and Robin glanced up to give Starfire a thumbs up. He edged around the side, with Starfire flying above him. "Keep an eye out, guys, there may be more-" WHAM! Robin's sentence was cut off by a large metallic clang on the other side of the crate Starfire had blown the troops into. Running around the edge, They turned the corner in time to see Beast Boy returning to normal from his rhinoceros form, and what appeared to be the last soldier now occupying a large whole in the crate. He groaned slightly, and passed out.

"These guys are pretty good, but we're still the best!" Beast Boy gave a cheesy thumbs up, and Robin just grinned at him.

"Alright, you guys. God work. Now, let's hit that cargo dock. If what I heard over the com is true, then we can get to the rest of the facility from there," Robin directed his team to a heavy security door between the two larger garage doors. Starfire spent no time prying it open.

"Thanks, Star. Ok, guys, keep an eye out. I don't want any unnecessary-" a bright flash of light cut him off as he walked through the door. When his vision cleared, he found himself blinking a few more times, just to be sure.

They were back in the hallway they had been in before Cyborg had blown the door. The Boy Wonder whirled around to make sure the rest of the team was with him, and in fact, nearly the whole team was standing beside him. Mimic, Raven and Cyborg were there, along with Beast Boy and Star.

"Dudes, what just happened?" Beast Boy asked no one in particular. The rest of the group looked just as confused as he did.

Robin made a decision at that point to get the hell out of there. "Ok, guys. We are not equipped to deal with this scenario. All we did was try to blow a door, and we nearly got ourselves killed. By militia, and each other."

"Nuh-uh," Mimic stopped him. "We aren't going anywhere without Stray-"

"Aw, it's so cute that you're worried about me," a snide voice said from behind him. Mimic spun around, and the rest of the group followed his gaze, to Stray turning a corner, rubbing his head and wincing.

Mimic moved to run up to him, but Robin stopped him. "What are you doing here, Stray?" He growled.

Stray looked up, and cocked an eyebrow at him. Mimic noticed that his eyes were their normal shade of blue. "We're just trying to get the hell out of here, man."

"We?" Robin asked, then traced his gaze down Stray's arm, and saw that he was holding hands with a dark haired, slightly tanned young girl in blue jeans and a tank top, maybe about seven or eight. "Stray, where'd you get the girl?"

"She was hiding under a desk in this stupid room I woke up in. Like, row after row of cubicles, man, it was annoying. I only found her cause I heard her crying."

Raven took a step forward. "What's her name?"

Stray shrugged, and walked up to the group. "I've got no idea. She won't talk, except a small word here or their. Took me like an hour to get her out from under the desk. I had to take my claws off, and fold them into my pockets. And she keeps calling my 'Kitty'." Raven glanced at his hands and feet, which no longer had his weapons, then at his cargo pockets, which seemed properly weighed down.

"Alright, let's get her out of here," Robin conceded.

"Whoa, man. Don't we need to make sure he's safe to travel with?" Cyborg asked, taking a step back.

Stray gave him a look. "What are you on about now, Toaster Boy? Ok, sure, the eating thing was weird, and I did almost get us blowed up, but still-"

"You also attacked us, and nearly tore Robin's chest open," Raven pointed a finger at their leader. Her eyes widened when she glanced over at Robin, however, and noticed that the scratches were gone. The only thing missing from his uniform was the button he had torn off himself.

Stray blinked. "Ok, I know you don't like me, which sucks, but you don't have to go _that_ far."

Robin and Raven exchanged worried glances, then looked back at him. "You don't remember anything?" Robin asked carefully, raising an eyebrow.

"Dude, I remember plenty. I woke up on top of a goddamn fax machine, then walked around a few dozen boring as hell hallways, then opened this weird wooden door into some random dude's house, where, thank you very much, a freaking big-ass brute of a guy holding a minigun, and wearing freaking armor, nearly blasts me a new hole to breathe out of. I caught him with a grenade, and blasted his ass down the stairs into the basement, then ran for it. That's when I found myself in cubicle land, with little Miss Silence over here. Been calling her Alice," Stray punctuated his sentences with gestures here and there, and the little girl made no movements except to look up at him when he said 'Alice.' "She seems to respond to it, too, so I guess it works."

Beast Boy couldn't help himself. "Why Alice?"

"Cause I found her in one hell of a rabbit hole, now let's go home. I don't think she's had any food in awhile.

Robin gave Stray and Alice another glance each, then decided. "Al right. Let's just get out of here for now. We'll hit the tower, and call in some help. We're going to need much more than just us if we want to stand any chance against whatever this is."

The rest of the team seemed to agree, although a few were still hesitant about Stray. Raven, most of all.

*--*

Back at the tower, they had gathered around the living room, setting up battle plans, and making calls to some other heroes. Robin had already talked to Batman, and the Dark Knight had offered to come in himself. Robin had considered it, but decided against it. Their team dynamic was, according to Robin, what would get them through the night in one piece, and Batman operated very differently than they did.

The rest of the team knew the real reason: Robin didn't want Batman to think he couldn't handle a real mission with his own team without him.

As far as Alice went, the only person she would go near was Stray, as everyone else who had tried to approach her had been met with a small scream, or otherwise she would just shrink into herself, and scoot closer to her 'Kitty.' His tail flicked whenever she called him that, though.

After a few hours, Robin called the group to order. "Ok, you guys, according to Batman, the medical center we went into didn't have anyone else in it other than the team that had gone in. Eyewitness reports state that the only people that entered the building were the first team we came across, and us. Other than that, except during normal business hours, nobody remembers anyone else going in or out."

"And Alice?" Stray asked. Robin shook his head.

"No one recognized her. It's possible that she had been pulled into that strange nightmare from somewhere else, though, so I've put up a few 'Child Found' bulletins."

Stray nodded, then walked off with the girl. "Come on, let's find you a good place to sleep," he told her, using a soft voice and warm smile. He turned back to the team. "Look, you guys, someone has to look out for her, and I'm probably not the best bet to go back in. Aside from Raven's powers fluxing like bad electricity, I'm the only other one that had any kind of personal issues in there. And to be honest, Raven's issues don't worry me as much. Especially if this was just the tip of the iceberg."

Robin nodded, and Stray walked out of the room with Alice, the automatic doors closing behind them. "Ok. According to Batman, the company whose facility we just… experienced is called Regent Industries. Their project with Caroline had been dubbed the 'Regent Initiative', mainly due to the fact that, even though Armacham, the company doing the experimentation with Alma and Feddell, was the primary contractor, Regent was one of the larger chemical suppliers. Apparently, they also wanted a chunk of the contract, so they started working on their own project, with some of the shared information they had received from Armacham, who they were trading with. Mainly just for the chemicals. Apparently, they have an offshore facility farther up the coast, where Caroline was allegedly being held. So that's our next stop."

"And who is to meet us there?" Starfire asked.

"I've got calls out to The Herald, Kid Flash, and Argent. I think their abilities would be the better fit for this fight. And Stray's right. He's probably just going to be a liability. More so than he thinks, given what he remembers."

The rest of the group nodded their agreement, and suited up with the supplies they had come back with, as well as some equipment they had left behind. "Ok, team, move out," Robin commanded, and the team made for the front door. Cyborg took a step forward, and the front door slid open-

Only to slam shut again, nearly cleaving Cyborg's foot off, had he not taken a step back. The lights cut out soon after, leaving them entirely in the dark.

"Lights!" Robin barked. Cyborg turned on his shoulder light, and Starfire held up a star bolt to illuminate the room. They took a quick once over of the room, then heard Beast Boy.

"Um, guys? You may want to take a look at this," he said in a small voice. The others turned to where he was pointing, and Starfire's and Cyborgs light crossed the front door at the same time.

Upon the doors, scrawled crudely in blood was a simple message:

_No one leaves. Not Now. Not Ever._

_I'm home._

_Mimic read over the scrawl a few times, then asked no one in particular, "How many of you want to bet that Stray didn't bring 'Alice' home."_

"_More like Caroline," Robin growled to himself._

_Raven stared at the blood on the wall. "More like the Red Queen.:_

_A/N: Yay, scene changes. Looks like the story is coming along fine, which is always good. Tell me what you think._


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Finally, a new chapter. Ok, let's try this again.

Chapter 5

"Ok, so we have a psychotic houseguest with a big pet cat, how bad can it be?" Beast Boy mused. The rest of the group just glared at him.

Mimic groaned. "I'm thinking about moving back into the H.I.V.E."

Robin shot him a glare, and the others kind of blew him off. "Alright, team, we have an AWOL team mate who appears, for all intense and purpose, to have turned on us, and is currently under the directive of a psychic commandant with a high intelligence and a low degree of maturity. We need to fan out and-" he was cut off by radio static pouring over his communicator.

"****We have multiple targets****closed room*****flank from all sides*****-" it cut off, but there was still some feedback. Robin looked around at his team, and motioned to the doors. They nodded, and each took point. Raven and Cyborg guarded over a side door, and Robin and Starfire took the opposite dies. Mimic and Beast Boy stood on either side of the main entrance.

It didn't help.

The doors next to Raven and Cyborg slid open, and Cyborg stepped in front, sonic cannon at the ready. Even with his enhanced vision, he didn't see anyone in the hallway until it was too late. As three Scorpion missiles struck him in the chest, he went flying into the couch, landing with a heavy crash. Raven shielded the door, but her attention waned when she heard an explosion behind her. She whipped around in time to see Robin and Starfire go flying, landing on top of Cyborg in that order. It shook her just enough, that she felt a heavy thud across the back of her neck, and a sharp, burning pain seared across her skull, and she blacked out.

"Raven!" Beast Boy screamed. The next thing he knew, he was rushing down the halls of the tower at breakneck speed. Literally, when he stopped, he felt his neck crack a little. He looked up from being dropped on his ass, and saw Mimic engaging the locks on his bedroom door. "Dude, what the hell are you doing?! We have to go back!"

"They're going to be fine. Before I rushed you out of there, I dropped them off in their own rooms. But listen, they should wake up soon, completely split apart. They're going to freak out when they wake up, and we have a tower of soldiers now. So we need a plan. You've been here longer than I have, are there any rooms that are psychically guarded? Anything with some kind of uber protection?" Mimic shook Beast Boy by the shoulders.

"Calm down, dude. Ok, let me think. Alright! We still have the Blue Room. It's where we kept Raven when we were trying to keep her from Trigon. Now, he was able to make contact with her, but that's because he was an all-powerful demon god thing. This Caroline chick shouldn't be able to do anything to us there. Let's try and get everyone into that room, ok?" Beast Boy paced around the room, thinking while he talked.

Mimic nodded. "Alright. I'm going to need a moment to change power sets, Kid Flash isn't going to cut it. We need something more bulletproof. I'm thinking Argent," he thought out loud. He sat on Beast Boy's bed, throwing some stuff aside. He closed his eyes and focused, while Beast Boy sat watch for a few seconds. He looked up in time to see Mimic open his eyes, as his pupils emanated an intense red ring that bled into his irises.

Beast Boy turned into a wolf, and Mimic coated himself in a thin, red armor. Together, they set forward through a hall down the main hall. After a few doors, Mimic took a look into a room with a door that didn't match the rest of the tower. It was a simple wooden door, with a metal knob. Like something you'd see-

"-In an office building. Why the hell is this here?" Mimic thought out loud. He took a quick look around the room. It looked like someone had trashed the place for something. He took a quick look around, and saw a single piece of paper on a clipboard next to the keyboard. "The hell is this?" He took a quick look over the sheet.

Replica Cloning Batch 7 Recruitment Acquisition Form 34d-9

"Replicas? What are.." he trailed off as he kept reading. The rest of the sheet was mainly technical information, but Mimic was able to gather enough information from it to see that it was a request from for clones. And that the clones were part of The Psychic Soldier program that Robin had told them about. It didn't take much for him to put two and two together. "Beast Boy, you should see this." He read over a few more sections, then realized the room was still silent. "Beast Boy?" he turned around. Nothing. The door was closed again, but he didn't remember having done so. He took a quick look out the small window next to the door, and saw nothing but empty hallway. "Great. He must have kept walking when I came in here." He grumbled to himself about the green teens attention span, and threw the door opened. Then, a flash of brilliant darkness consumed him.

"Mimic, I don't think we're going to find anyone here. Either they cleared out, or…" he stopped when he realized he wasn't being followed. He didn't hear any footsteps except his own. He wheeled around, and saw that the hallway was empty before him. "Mimic?" he looked around, and saw that the hall behind him looked nothing like their normal décor. Instead, it had been terraformed into a hospital hallway, with a pale color palette, and white tile ceiling. He turned back around, and the rest of the hallway had changed to match.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." he took a quick inventory of the area, and saw that aside from the changes to the décor, the hallway was completely barren. He saw on one end, a pair of double doors that he could see a light on the other side of, and the opposite end of the hall, the same double doors. Except he saw licks of flame in the windows.

He tore down the hall towards the burning room, morphing into a rhino on the way down. Bursting through the double doors, he was greeted by a flash of white light, and he felt himself slow down exponentially. He looked to each side, and turning his head he realized he had returned to his human form. He would have taken a second to gather his bearings, but the laughter of a child rang in his ears He spun around, and saw the door behind him had disappeared. Spinning back around, he discovered that the room had been replaced with an empty void, and he stood amongst a circle of flames.

"_They never accepted me…"_

Beast Boy spun around once more, and felt a heavy impact upon his chest.

"_They took me away from mommy and daddy…"_

THUD. Another impact against his side, and he felt his head reel. His vision blurred, and he buckled over. Then he felt himself sinking into whatever floor he had been standing on, as if into a deep quagmire. Then another flash of light, and he found himself falling into a bright room.

"_They were bad people. They tried to hurt mommy, but daddy didn't let them. So they hurt daddy…"_

He stood up, and saw that he had landed in a well-dressed living room, unbeknownst to him, the same one that Stray had found himself in hours before. He glanced around, and saw a little blonde girl sitting on the couch, staring at the tv. Her mouth didn't move, but what he now realized was her voice echoed through the room, through his head.

"_They hurt others, too. My friends. The other kids in school. They even took some of the others away…"_

The little girl turned her head and looked up at Beast Boy, with crystal blue eyes, and she frowned. Then, she slowly dissolved into ash, and sunk into the couch. He heard a scream from behind him, and turned so quickly he nearly stumbled to his knees. What he saw in front of him, almost finished the drop. The room remained, but around him, there was nothing left but decay, blood, and a hint of flame.

Before him was the corpse of an old man, riddled with bullets, laid out on the floor. He saw a simple, wispy after image of the same man running though the door in front of him, followed by similar after images. He heard a mesh of screaming, orders shouted, gunfire. The echoes of the tragedy rang through his body like the casing of a church bell. As the wisps ran past him, he followed with his gaze, and saw against one wall an aged woman cowering against a wall, holding for dear life onto the small girl he had seen earlier. The girl herself was clutching a very familiar white rabbit.

As the images reached her, she let out a scream, and they dissipated. Beast Boy noticed the group of dead soldiers along the ground. They looked as if they had been shredded by the air around them, until even the bones had been scratched to the marrow. While he was staring blankly at the corpses, still trying to wrap his mind around what he was seeing, he heard a loud burst near his right ear, which started to ring straight after. Flinching from the explosion of sound, he shook his head, and when he looked up, he saw the old woman had been shot, and the young girl was being dragged away. As the stuffed rabbit fell from her hand, Beast Boy's vision blurred, and went black.

Mimic's vision cleared to find himself standing in the basement of the tower. He took a quick survey of the area, then reestablished the aura of armor he had shielded himself with. He then metastasized a blade from each arm, and took a step forward. He had a split second to notice the red blinking light from the corner of his eye, before the proximity mine launched into his line of sight, and he reacted. He pushed forward with everything in his mind, and a surge of red matter launched forward, propelling the mine further into the room before it detonated.

The blast left his ears ringing, but he heard a few soldier cry out in pain. He dived behind a crate, planting his back against the metal casing. He heard shouts behind him, and heard a few bullets ricochet off of the ground next to him, and realized swords wouldn't cut it, even with his armor. He glanced around for a stray weapon, and that's when he saw it. Lying inconspicuously against a wall, innocently angled on it's side. Almost as if he had put it there himself. He grinned wildly.

It was a grenade launcher.

"YUS!" he shouted, diving for the weapon. He heard more bullets ricochet wildly around him, and felt one chip the armor on his shoulder. He flinched as it grazed, the impact resonating through the shoulder he'd forgotten was slightly chipped. He wondered at what point he'd started to move it again.. As he lay hands on his dream weapon, only three things ran through his mind.

One, he was receiving heavy fire from several assailants.

Two, he knew now that they were little more than clones, meat puppets. Not alive enough to be considered human, not dead enough not to be a threat.

And three, it was loaded.

He launched himself to his feet, and took his first shot wildly. As if guided by the graces of his own guardian angel, he grinned as he saw the projectile soar true, landing square into a soldier's nose. Had he kept Kid Flash's reflexes, he would have seen it break his nose the split second before it detonated.

There was nothing left of the soldier from the waist up but a splash of blood on the walls.

Then the other soldiers reminded him of their presence, as a bullet landed square into his neck.

Had he not had his armor, he would have died on the spot, but he marveled at the sheer strength of the energy he had created, after he had drawn himself to his knees behind another crate, and reminded himself that real soldiers _shouldn't_ be able to survive more than one bullet.

He peeked over the side of the crate, and saw a shadow of movement. He reeled up, and launched another projectile, which bounced against the wall, and clunked to the ground. He feared for a split second that it was a dud, until he heard someone yell, "FUCK!" followed by the sweet, welcome sound of an explosion. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another splash of blood, and heard over his comm, "I need backup! I'm the only one left!"

Mimic grinned. He decided he didn't need to waste any ammo. So he glanced around, and saw the gun one of his victims left behind, so he tried an experiment. He drew a section of energy across the ground, slowly stretching it in a thin line, releasing some of the shielding around his legs. He pulled the string of energy around the grip of the weapon, and tilted it up, slightly. He drew it towards him, and knelt further to draw it from the ground. His shoulder surged slightly with pain, as he remembered to reach with the other hand. His adrenaline was wearing off.

He gripped the gun by barrel, using his borrowed powers to solidify his hold. Taking a glance around the other side of the pillar, he saw a shadow step up beside him, and he glanced up in time to see a soldier snap his gaze down at him. He swung out with the gun, cracking it across the soldier's chin. The man reeled from the blow, so Mimic took another swing, bringing it across his temple. The man fell to his knees, so he shifted the gun, gripping the trigger.

And unloaded three rounds of the assault rifle between the man's eyes.

Raven awoke in her room, and the only thing that convinced her that it hadn't been a dream was that she woke up on the floor. She took a look around, and saw that nothing was out of place, save for the path from her door to the spot she had woken up in. It seems she had been rushed in here. She took a quick mental inventory of the events leading up to her blackout, and made a note to thank Mimic for keeping Kid Flash's powers on cue. Standing up, she decided to try to contact her friends. Hopefully, Caroline's influence had dug deep enough to affect her powers in her own home.

She took a meditative pose on her bed, and slowly began to chant her mantra. After a few renditions, her head started to spin. Her eyes fluttered open, and she found herself floating three feet above the roof.

"What. The. HELL?!" she exclaimed, taking to her feet and glaring around. She took a few moments to settle herself, as she felt the floor underneath her shake under her influence. Then she realized it wasn't her influence, as she heard a mechanical whir behind her.

She spun around in time to see the barrels of the Gatling gun on each arm of the powered armor before her level at her head. "For the love of Azar," she muttered, throwing up a telekinetic field and minimizing herself as a target by kneeling under her cloak. She felt the stress on her mind rage in burden as round after round assaulted her energies in an angry riot of fire and metal.

It wasn't long before she was forced to retract her shield, lest it break under the strain. With the realization that not all her powers were limited in this new environs, she took hold of the mighty construct through sheer force of will, letting her mind consume the mechanical beast in darkness. Soon after, it was flung skyward, arching over the side of the building. She levitated after it, only to see it burst against the rocks in an explosion of brilliant blue.

"I just hope to whatever power would save us now that there wasn't a person in there." she told herself. Walking back onto the roof, she leaned against the door, pressing an ear against the metal to listen for anyone that might await her in ambush in the stairwell. Voices on the other side forewarned her of another presence, but their tone and inflection left her doubting whether or not they were her enemy.

She creaked the door open silently, and stared into the void of the unlit stairway, and heard a familiar voice.

"Raven?"

Robin awoke with a splitting headache. His ears were ringing, and he felt a great deal or rage well up within him. The only thing that comforted him was that he'd woken up in his own room.

Which gave him an opportunity to rearm himself. It was time he did his part to fight back.

Loading up his utility belt with various weapons, he took a recap of everything that had brought him here. Receiving the call from Batman, informing him of a medical facility having reported a break-in. Fighting off a small militia of well-trained and organized soldier with advanced firepower. Stray's erratic behavior, leading up to his betrayal, which Robin prayed he could attribute to the young met human's genetic and mental instabilities. He kicked himself for not seeing the young Titan's shortcomings as the real threat they were.

_Focus, _he told himself. _Keep going_. The massively intricate metastasization they had awoken in. Mimic's injuries, the group splitting away. Raven's powers switching on and off like a car blinker with no timer. The insurgence into the tower's living room. The last thing he remembered was a flash of light and Starfire calling out his name. _Starfire,_ he thought to himself. _I have to find her and the others._

He jammed a birdarang into the edge of his door, and slowly slid it open, taking a small glance into the highway. He didn't see much, except the usual emergency lights. Had this been any other night, he would have assumed they had suffered a power outage.

He took his first few steps into the hallway with little issue. Save for his cape catching in the door. Tugging himself free, and retrieving his birdarang, he took one last glance into the room, to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. At first, he noticed nothing, then, a flicker in the corner of his vision.

Caroline.

He did a double take, and saw her image slowly dissolve in the window, her laughter ringing throughout the room. "God," he muttered to himself. Shaking his head, he turned back into the hall. Coming upon his first intersection, he found nothing around the corner. At least, until the door to his left slid open.

Then the Heavy walked out.

Half a ton of mobile metal armor, wielding what looked to Robin to be a triple-barreled bazooka. He dove behind the corner, in time to feel the wall shake with the explosion of the missiles. He counted to himself, and felt another barrage. _Three second reload rate. I can do that._ He pulled out tactics from the back of his head, weaving a plan into motion the best he could. He thought about waiting until the armored soldier ran out of ammo, but figured the best bet would be to assume that he wouldn't. _We're not in Kansas __anymore,_ he told himself.

He felt one more barrage hit the wall behind him, and felt it start to give. Then he leapt into the hallway.

His first response was pure instinct. Taking a few exploding pellets from his belt, he heaved them at the small tank of a soldier, and then wrapped his cape around him to guard from the flash of light. When he looked up, he saw the barrel leveling at him again, but noticed a slight give in the man's shoulder.

The only thing that would have caused him hesitation at that point was his lesson never to kill another person. That sense of duty was washed away with the realization that the environment around them had become unpredictable by their standards. He figured it was safe to assume that their opponents were little more than constructs. With heavy weapons.

He lunged forward, bringing his birdarang longsword down against the launcher itself, causing the weapon to spark slightly, and slam to the ground. Then he felt a heavy thud against his back.

Had he not already been moving forward with his swing, the blow may have knocked him out on the spot. But with his forward momentum, aside from hurting, it did little more than cause him to roll behind the soldier faster. At which point he swung behind him with his blade, taking the edge down on the crook of the neck of the armor. He felt the heavy leather give a little, and the man staggered. So he swung again. He felt a greater give, and saw blood burst from the armor, as the man fell to his knees, then collapsing entirely.

Robin took some time to check the man's vitals, and felt nothing. He contemplated taking the launcher with him, but decided to look for lighter weapons. He needed to remain as agile as possible. Continuing his route, he expected to see more soldiers, after having eliminated one of their Heavies. He hadn't made it halfway down the hall when he saw a glimpse of movement at the end, the figure of a small child just turning the corner.

He darted forth, chasing after the figure, but by the time he had reached the corner, she was nowhere to be seen. Then he looked up. Again, at the end of the hall, he saw the small figure again, this time taking a moment to look at him, almost appraisingly, before walking behind the wall again. Robin gave chase.

This continued for several hallways. It occurred to him that she was leading him on, but she was the only clue he had, so he kept going. Until he saw the girl stopped in front of a door. She laughed lightly, the echo resounding through the walls, and walked through the door itself. He noticed it didn't slide open.

He rushed to the door, and saw that it was Cyborg's room. With most of the power in the tower out, the door wouldn't open. He started to wonder what had been supplying power to the door in his room, when he heard a loud crash, and what sounded like Cyborg screaming. Putting away his longsword, and pulling out his bo staff, he struck the door with everything he had. It gave way, as if it had simply rusted around the edges, and collapsed in front of him. He glanced into the room, and saw Cyborg lai9d out on his metallic slate of a bed, seemingly asleep.

"Cyborg? Cyborg!" he yelled. He knocked the metal Titan's head a couple of times with his staff, then saw that he was being kept asleep by his systems. He followed the cords to a terminal in the corner of the room, and keyed in his partner's reactivation sequence.

Soon after, he heard a groaning behind him, as Cyborg returned to consciousness. The big man glanced around, and saw Robin, then leapt off the table. "Man, am I glad to see you. Last thing I remember is taking some kind of explosion to my chest."

Robin nodded. "You were hit with a rocket launcher. I've already taken out the soldier using that weapon. I don't think there's that many of them around. I've only come across the one."

"Freaking a, Robin. How the hell are we going to take this chick down when she can throw us anywhere she wants?" Cyborg moaned, while he checked his systems. "It looks like she hasn't messed with me too much. Everything looks in order."

Robin shook his head. "I honestly have no idea what her plans are. But all I know is that we need to keep moving forward. We may find a way to stress her limits, give ourselves an opening. I think I have an idea of how to-"

"How to what? Cyborg asked, still tampering with his arm readout. "Robin?" he asked again, looking up. Then his eyes widened.

Robin was just standing there, his eyes slowly rolling back into his head, as a trickle of blood poured from his mouth. Cyborg looked down, and saw a clawed hand protruding from The Boy Wonder's stomach. "ROBIN!" he shouted, as the hand yanked its way out, and Robin fell to the floor. Cyborg looked back up to see Stray standing there, licking his claws.

"How anticlimactic," the feline mused. It barely registered with Cyborg that his outfit had changed again. He had donned his gakuen uniform again, but had cut slits in the cap for his ears. "I expected to have to fight to the death with him, but I guess sneaking up and impaling him works too. Can't do that with you, though, tin man. Guess I'll have to get creative," he grinned.

Cyborg snapped out of his shock, and leapt back, landing on his table. He leveled his sonic cannon at the traitor, and opened fire. Stray leapt up, and latched onto the ceiling. "You bastard! You killed Robin! I'm taking you down!"

"Taking me down? Is that the best you can do, tin man? I've heard much better one-liners. Hell, I've heard better newspaper headlines. Like my favorite," he added, leaping from his place on the ceiling, just as Cyborg opened fire again. He dodged a few more shots, then posed on a chair. Raising a hand, Cyborg saw a line of red light, almost like thread, reach out from the feline's "paw" and sink into Robin. Cyborg twitched as the bloodied corpse rose to it's feet again, then took a battle pose against it's old best friend.

"The dead walk."

Raven looked down at Starfire. "Starfire? What are you doing here? Where are the others?"

The young alien looked sad. "Truthfully, I do not know. I had awoken in my room, and merely wandered the halls. Then I heard loud noises coming from the roof, and rushed here to see if everything was okay."

Raven nodded. "I had a visitor, and a tiny mind trip, but I'm fine. We need to find the others."

"Agreed." Star nodded, and they set back down the stairs. Almost as soon as they hit the next floor, however, they heard screaming down the hall. The voice was familiar.

"Cyborg!" they yelled as one, and flew down the corridor. They hit a corner in time to see Cyborg crash into the wall before them. Starfire helped him to his feet.

"Cyborg, are you hurt?"the pale cambion asked. Cyborg just scowled, shook his head, and pointed down the hall. Starfire's and Raven's gazes followed his gesture.

That's when they noticed Robin, who, aside from the gaping hole in his stomach, looked more than well, and more than willing to fight. Raven then noticed Stray standing behind him, weaving a red thread that led into Robin's back. Raven recognized the process almost instantly.

"Stray, you freak! Since when did you learn necromancy?!"

Starfire gasped, and followed her partner's gaze. Then she screamed in anguish. "_You have murdered my friend and befowled his corpse! You are not fit to call yourself a warrior!"_ she bellowed, then let loose with everything she had. Pouring the energy of stars into the hallway, flooding the corridor, her teammates had to shield there ayes from the brilliance of her rage. When the light cleared, Starfire's jaw dropped, and she fell to her knees.

Robin had thrown up a kinetic shield, the device merely sitting in his palm. "Don't think I don't have any more tricks up my sleeve, Star. I know everything Robin knows now. That's the advantage of gaining these abilities when you're still alive. Caroline's been pretty good to me lately."

Raven just shot him a scathing look. "How is she doing this?!"

"Because I let her," he said simply. "Remember the blood I drank earlier? Most of it was from Replicas. The very clone soldiers she was programmed to command. Now, she can work through me all she wants. And thanks to dear old mommy and daddy, I'm perfectly capable of handling the power. I'd never figured that Mimic's and my parents worked for Armacham itself," he mused.

The three titans just glared at him, taking defensive poses. "Just what do you intend to do?" Starfire demanded.

The feline gave her a snide grin, wrapping his arms around himself. "Whatever she wants me to," he answered, then threw his arms out, screaming wildly.

The telesthenic blast blinded the three heroes, and when they glanced up, Robin and Stray had gone.

And Starfire began to weep.

Author's Note: Just this: I always did hate this Robin. Egotistical jackoff.


End file.
